Altered Destiny
by Kirek
Summary: A headstrong and slightly sadistic Jounin meets a young girl who refuses to give up. Follow the two as everything doesn't quite happen the way they were supposed to. Centered around Anko and Naruko. AU, female version of Naruto, Shoujo-ai later on.
1. Meeting for the First Time

**Altered Destiny  
**  
Title subject to change, rating PG13 to be on the safe side.

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, I do own the plot of this story (for as far as there is one) and the extra characters I may or may not add._

_Response to reviews at the bottom, be sure to read the A/N's._

**Chapter 01 – Meeting for the First Time:**

It was a perfect day and there was not a care in the world. The sun was shining, dreamy misty white blobs drifted lazily across a brilliant blue sky and the various birds were chirping their contentment loudly. Yet for one woman, this day would change her life.

Mitarashi Anko, only just having reached the tender age of eighteen, was strolling merrily down one of the busy streets of Konohagakure no Saito, her home… The place she had almost betrayed… But that was not important now. She had left her depressing thoughts about those events behind her. Although their presence would always be like a looming shadow within her consciousness, they were always squashed down and carelessly flung aside by the boundless energy and spunk that was in her very nature.

Almost always anyway…

A dazzling grin was plastered on her face, wrinkling her nose, and made her big almond-shaped and dark brown eyes shut tightly despite herself. She didn't need to see to actually _see_. She was a Jounin after all…

Two sets of dango, the sweet An-dango type today, were held firmly in her hands. It was her favourite food, but kept slowly disappearing as she ate the sweet dumplings at a rapid pace. Technically speaking it wasn't food as in something you could live on, though Anko kept denying this fiercely at every possible opportunity. But seeing that she kept eating dango and barely anything else, made several people doubt about the true nutritional value of it. She hadn't died of malnutrition yet after all…

As she passed a particularly large crowd of people, she felt the stares of all the males boring near literal holes in her back… And other places… Her grin broadened, if that was even possible. She always laughed about the prim attitudes of all the other women in this village. If you had the goods, why not show them off like they were supposed to be in the first place?

This had become her personal motto. A fishnet bodice that stretched halfway down her arms and legs hardly left anything to imagination. Thankfully she had the prudence of mind to cover her waist and the short distance of her thighs with an incredibly petite beige-coloured skirt, dappled with several small pouches and rings to hook on several weapons of her own choice. Hardened and spit-shined steel armguards and shin guards protected her, and added the necessary punch if someone was unlucky enough to get on her bad side.

A contemptuous snort escaped her fulsome lips, as she could feel the glares shot at her by several women, no doubt jealous they couldn't make it look as good as she could. Or they were silently accusing her of being a nymphomaniac. In any case, Anko couldn't really care less; they were probably right with the latter option anyway. A long coat, a slightly darker colour than her skirt, with a high mandarin collar, covered her generous bust from view even though she never closed it.

The standard issue sandals exposed her bare feet except for the straps that held them fast. The Konoha hitai-ate held her slightly spiky black hair from falling in her eyes, and a simple ribbon swept her longer hair back into a simple bun; thus finishing her ensemble.

'Ahhh, this is the life…' Anko thought contentedly, throwing away the sticks that were left of her precious dango. The back of her hand swept in a carefree, careless manner across her face, wiping away the remnants of food that still clung stubbornly to her face. People would never be able to accuse her from eating dinner in a dainty manner, and she was quite proud of that fact, thank you very much.

Having wiped the now dirty back of her hand on her coat, she opened her eyes, her chocolate-brown orbs sparkling with mischief. She had already done her mission for the day, an A-rank assassination, nothing special, and was now steadily becoming bored. She needed something to do… _Anything_ would do.

'Hmm, I could annoy Iruka-kun…' She thought with unchecked glee. 'He's so easy.'

Her grin, already having died down several moments before, returned in full force. People that milled all around her backed off without even knowing why. All that they did know was that they wanted to get out of here fast.

Rubbing her hands together like a megalomaniac about to take over the world, she ran off towards where she thought she would be able to find the kind-hearted Chuunin, and bowled over several people, sending even some sailing into the air without stopping to apologize.

* * *

She stood, panting, bloody and _definitely_ not looking like the little girl she was supposed to be. Only a child yet she already knew more pain than most would in a lifetime.

Uzumaki Naruko, a scorned yet spirited little girl and only six years old was currently in the middle of the toughest fight of her short lifespan. And things were not looking good. Not good at all…

It didn't help she was outnumbered four to one either.

Every part of her body ached, even the roots of her long blonde hair, tied into two neat pigtails until they were tugged on mercilessly by the girls of whom she had asked a simple question; "Can I play with you guys?" Well it had been a simple question…

That she had shouted things at them that they would not dare to repeat at home was just a logical response to being turned down and laughed at, wasn't it?

With one eye puffy and nearly closed, that left one particularly bright sapphire eye to judge her current situation. Her prized orange jacket and matching baggy pants that always screamed: "Look at me, I'm here, you won't be able to ignore me!" had several large rips in them. Numerous stains of dirt and blood darkened the bright orange to a muddy red.

She flexed her hands, wincing noticeably as she felt the stinging pain of a fresh bite from one of the girls. Naruko smiled however as she looked at the girl who did that to her. She had certainly come worse off, with a bite to the nose and a set of teeth marks that marred her exposed skin below her horrible purple skirt, she looked ready to cry.

The ringleader of that little group glared at Naruko and cracked her knuckles in a very unladylike fashion. "We've told you before Naruko-_kun_, we don't want to play with you!"

"Yeah!" One of her lackeys with a particularly heinous pug-like nose shouted. "Why do you always keep trying?!"

Another, standing next to the girl who was about to cry, looked up and rubbed her cheek, which was still sore from when Naruko had punched her as hard as she could. "We don't want to be seen with a tomboy like you!"

"Shut up!" Naruko screamed. No matter how often this scene unfolded, she always got enraged. Why wouldn't anyone play with her? Why wouldn't anyone even acknowledge her? "I'll kick all of your asses, I won't be ignored!"

The four girls looked shocked for a split second, and Naruko took that chance to viciously bowl into the leader's stomach. They rolled over and over for a few moments; punching, kicking, biting and pulling on each others' hair and looking like two street dogs fighting over a tasty-looking bone. Standing slack-jawed at the ferocity of their leader and the blonde girl that always approached them every day without fail, the other girls quickly jumped into the fray.

A few minutes later, the leader gave one final vicious punch before rising and staggering off, followed by the three girls, every single one of them either nursing a bite, bleeding nose, scrapes or bruises, and left behind a ragged pile of humanity that was left of Uzumaki Naruko.

Over an hour after the severe beating, the intense glare of the setting sun looked down uponher small figure, dragging herself up along on hands and knees before standing up ever so shakily. Without so much as a sound escaping her lips, Naruko managed to stay upright, even though she wobbled from side to side dangerously. She clutched the ragged remains of her jacket, which hardly covered her black t-shirt with a prominent swirling symbol on the front and back.

Taking the jacket off, she slung it across her shoulder and wiped her eyes with her arm. She wouldn't cry. She hardly cried at all any more. Instead, she would keep trying without fail. Every single day for the rest of her life if she had to.

They wouldn't be able to ignore her forever… Would they?

A small sigh from the little girl broke the silence of the eerily silent playground she found herself at. She looked around and spotted the thing she was looking for. Ever since she had first used them, Uzumaki Naruko had had a strange affinity for swings. For some reason they made her feel like she was able to fly, and she found the motion of going back and forth strangely soothing.

When she seated herself on the only operational swing, the other having one chain broken due to rust and excessive use, she began swinging backwards and then forwards again. Taking a moment to throw her jacket on the ground, she began to steadily increase her momentum by using her small legs. When she picked up enough speed, her mind went blissfully blank as the wind began to sweep through her matted and long blonde hair.

Naruko stayed like this for a while longer, until her ears picked up the faint sounds of people coming closer. She perked up, and her eyes widened slightly. Had those girls changed their minds? Would they play with her now?

Those hopeful thoughts were shot down quickly however, as the faints sounds were punctuated by loud shouts and if Naruko wasn't mistaken, they didn't sound too happy. She was proven right quickly, when she saw a large group of people, all carrying an odd and wide variety of items, and were being led by the leader of the small group of girls Naruko had asked if she could play with them.

It felt like her insides were being sucked down into nothingness through a large pit in her stomach when Naruko noticed the individual members of the group. There was the old lady from the marketplace who hit Naruko on the head for no reason at all. There were undoubtedly the parents of the girl glaring menacingly at Naruko and if she wasn't mistaken, that woman right there used to be her caretaker!

"There she is!" Naruko heard someone shout.

"Let's get her!" Was the surrounding chorus, and little girl or not, Naruko definitely knew she was in trouble now.

She was used to people staring coldly at her, or throwing insults her way, not caring if she listened or not. Some even went so far as to throw various items, ranging from rotten fruit or vegetables to small rocks at her. The size of those rocks though depended on the ones that were readily available. Meaning they could range from the size of a small pebble to the size of her own head.

Without waiting for the group to come any closer, Naruko quickly jumped off the swing, picked up her orange jacket and ran for it, without looking back.

* * *

'Where _is_ he?!' Anko wondered angrily.

She had been searching for hours and it was already getting dark, yet she still hadn't found Umino Iruka, the supposed victim of her torment today. Needless to say, Anko was beginning to feel mighty cranky.

Anko had tons of particularly sadistic ideas she wanted to try out. They usually ended with Iruka hanging from one window or another in nothing but his boxer-shorts. 'Or just plain butt-naked…' Anko sniggered to herself.

It wasn't that she hated the man, oh no, she would even go as far as to say she liked him very much. But that wouldn't stop her from taking out her sadistic pleasures on him.

If only she was able to find him…

But as all things come to an end, her train of thought was brought to a screeching halt when she heard a significant number of people shouting in the distance.

"That's odd…" She muttered. "I wonder what's… Oof!"

Anko was interrupted when a blonde and orange blur rammed, quite literally, head first into her abdomen. As expected of a Jounin, Anko managed to stay her ground, but due the sudden impact, the blur halted and dropped onto the ground.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Anko asked rather angrily, surprised to see a little girl rubbing her head forcefully.

"Owww!" The girl moaned and immediately glared at the older woman.

While most people would take this chance and inquire if the other was alright, Anko wasn't most people. Instead…

"I asked you a question, you little brat! What the hell do you think you're doing, bumping into me like that?!" Anko shouted furiously, ignoring the fact that the little girl seemed to be beaten up quite severely.

The child looked frantically behind her before she fixed the only eye she was able to use properly for now on the raging Anko.

Getting even angrier because the girl still hadn't answered her, she picked her up and shook her like a rag doll. "Answer me damnit!"

Even though the little girl was aware that this very, _very_ imposing looking woman was by now shouting death threats and of course the always bloody dismemberment and so and so forth, she couldn't help the fact that she thought the woman was absolutely, positively the _coolest_ person she had ever met.

"Wow!" She managed to utter, her voice strangely distorted due to be shaken so fiercely.

Her anger leaving her like a popped balloon, Anko was left spluttering and dropped the girl to the ground. "W-wha?"

Watching the child stand up again and dusting herself off, Anko took note of her various injuries. "Kid, what's your name?"

The girl looked up and grinned, despite a swollen cheek. "Uzumaki Naruko!" She answered…

…And promptly kicked Anko in the shins.

Cool person or not, nobody was going to shake her like that and get away with it. But Naruko managed to oversee one thing. Anko wasn't a normal villager, and had shin guards. _Steel_ shin guards. Steel and barely covered feet didn't mix.

Moaning for the second time that day, Naruko hopped in place on one foot, desperately rubbing it to make the pain go away.

Unable to help herself, Anko burst out into a fit of laughter, clutching her midsection all the while. "Hahahaha! You idiot! HAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Rubbing her foot and now glaring at the Jounin at the same time, Naruko uttered several curses. "Don't laugh damnit!"

Pinking away a small tear from the side of her eyes, Anko recomposed herself. "Oh man, what the hell did you do? Did you get run over or something?"

Naruko had the grace to look slightly embarrassed and fingered her blackened eye as she put her foot back down, wincing as she reached a particular tender spot. "No…" She began softly…

"Then what?" Anko grinned as she saw the tattered clothing that threatened to fall from the girl's body out of sheer misery. "Did you get in a fight?"

Uncharacteristically shy, Naruko fingered one of her dirtied pigtails with two of her fingers and stared at the ground. "Yes…" She whispered and then quickly looked up again, an almost defiant look in her eyes. "But I made those four girls pay!"

'Whoah, she took four kids on herself? And judging by those bruises, they were older than her too…' Anko thought, amazed. "What did they do, pick on you?" She inquired further, tucking a few of her rogue strands of hair behind her ears.

"No!" Naruko shouted, surprising even herself. "They wouldn't let me play with them!"

"You got in a fight over that?" Anko asked, puzzled that a little girl would take on four others just for that. "Your parents are going to be pissed off at you for that you know."

"No they won't." Naruko added sadly and stared at the ground again, using her foot to make random doodles in the dirt.

Anko was about to ask further, but didn't get the chance as a male voice suddenly rang out clearly.

"I found her! Over here!"

It was soon followed by a growing hum of angry voices, rising to an intimidating cacophony of insults and jeers. Like a cloud of buzzing bees, a growing group of people carrying items that were undoubtedly supposed to service as weapons, came closer and closer. Anko merely raised a delicate eyebrow and took notice of the fact that the little girl looked as skittish as a frightened rabbit, ready to bolt at the merest hint of trouble.

Finally, the mob of people surrounded the Jounin and the blonde girl, shaking their pitchforks, torches, and many more items. There was even someone, a rather large man, waving a table-leg in what Anko supposed was supposed to be a threatening manner.

The portly man, who put the strong members of the Akimichi clan to shame, spoke up. Or as Anko thought, it sounded more like a series of high-pitched oinks. "You little brat," he said, glowering at Naruko while wringing the sturdy piece of wood in his chubby hands. "You went too far this time!"

This was seconded by a plethora of; "that's right", "we'll make her pay" and the occasional; "you're going to die, demon-spawn!"

That last comment sparked Anko's interest. She already thought the child looked familiar, with the brilliant blue eyes and those strange thing whisker-like scars that ran along her cheeks.

She immediately mentally slapped herself. 'How could I forget, Yondaime-sama was such a hottie!'

Her subsequent thoughts about the Fourth Hokage, and the small amount of drool that escaped from the side of her mouth, were interrupted as she felt something latching on her left leg. Looking down, she saw and heard Naruko clutching her leg fiercely, all the while whimpering as she took in the group of people that obviously didn't have anything good in store for her.

Despite herself, Anko's heart melted at the sight. Even her slightly sadistic streak wouldn't allow her to just walk away from all this and leave the already beaten up little girl to her fate.

Naruko looked up in surprise when Anko bent over and patted her softly on the head. "Don't worry Naruko-chan. I won't let these people hurt you." She whispered conspiratorially and gave the blonde girl a cheeky wink before she turned to the angry mob with a maniacal gleam in her eyes…

* * *

****

A/N:

Hitai-ate: Metal forehead protector with the village's symbol on it.

Dango: Usually three to four dumplings put on a stick. There are several kinds, ranging from sweet to (slightly) nutritional. Guess which one Anko prefers.

_Update: It has been beta-ed now. Thanks to Princess-Tsunade, my source of inspiration... _

Hey you guys, this was just a short test chapter. I guess it's cliffhanger-ish, but I'm sure you guys can figure out how it's going to end, especially with the preview at the end of this chapter. Oh and no, don't worry, I'm not giving up on DYHM or anything. I just wanted to try something new for a change. It hasn't been beta-ed yet, since this was a spur of the moment thing, so please excuse the errors if they are there, which I'm sure they are. I wanted to release this before I went to bed. I'm pretty sure more details will be added to this soon so there's probably going to be a revised replacement for this chapter.

_Thanks to FenrisLupus for reinvigorating my interest in Anko. She's just too cool._

_Just a few warnings if I decide to continue this, it all depends on you guys and the support I'll get. It's probably going to be Yuri, as in girls getting together with girls. Only for Naruko though, so I'm not going to turn the whole village gay or anything. The pairing I haven't decided on yet, but those with a keen eye will already know the probable pairing for Anko and Naruko will be paired with either Hinata or Temari (oh I do love Temari, don't I?)_

_My reasons for Yuri are my own. It is not really meant as an attack at Yaoi or anything._

_So anyway, if you like this, please leave me a review. And if you don't like this… Well… Don't leave me a review._

_And one final thing. Please for the love of god, don't think I'm going to go Mary-sue or whatever, because I'm not. And no-one is going to be overpowered either. This is AU, so a female version of Naruto is allowed._

_

* * *

_

Preview for the next chapter:

"State your name." Mizuki ordered in a lazy drawl, giving Naruko a peculiar look as she stood before them with her hands on her hips, tugging on her dress impatiently while he shuffled some papers on his desk.

Iruka stared at him for a few moments before giving the girl an encouraging smile.

The twelve-year old grinned broadly and ran a hand through her spiky hair before she pointed at the two teachers in a threatening manner. "Naruko! Mitarashi Naruko! And I'm going to kick all of you bastard's asses!"


	2. Terror Duo

**Altered Destiny:****  
**  
Title subject to change, rating PG13 to be on the safe side.

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, I do own the plot of this story (for as far as there is one) and the extra characters I may or may not add._

_Response to reviews at the bottom, be sure to read the A/N's._

**Chapter 02 – Terror Duo:**

_Naruko looked up in surprise when Anko bent over and patted her softly on the head. "Don't worry Naruko-chan. I won't let these people hurt you." She whispered conspiratorially and gave the blonde girl a cheeky wink before she turned to the angry mob with a maniacal gleam in her eyes…_

* * *

Naruko hung limply in the arms of this very intimidating woman as she nonchalantly carried the child while she strolled through the streets of Konohagakure, paying no attention whatsoever to the stares and gawks of various onlookers.

The little girl couldn't believe what had transpired only a few moments ago. The high-pitched squeals of agony that had come from the porcine-like man still rang in her ears, making her jaw clench together almost painfully.

She couldn't be _completely_ sure, but she knew that the large piece of wood with which he had threatened her was definitely _not_ supposed to go up the place where Anko jammed it so forcefully. If Naruko hadn't been so scared, she might have felt sorry for the man. After all, that obese man wouldn't be able to sit down properly for a while…

The rhythmic motion and the tell-tale clapping of padded sandals hitting the ground at an increasingly rapid pace were oddly comforting to her shot nerves. Naruko certainly thought that Anko was mildly frightening but for after seeing someone protect _her_ like that… well, she didn't know what to think.

All her life she had been forced to do things on her own. Apparently, those people who stomped into her tiny little apartment once a month, slammed a handful of coins on the kitchen table, and stalked out again after shooting her a shilling glare, were supposed to be the caretakers who had been assigned by the Third to look after her. But they never took care of her at all. It had been nothing different than being alone all the time. It was still all up to her to scrape the money off the table and make a miserable trip to the grocery shops to buy her food, facing the constant looks of revulsion from the staff. Still herself who had stand on a chair to clean the dishes as best she could, still Naruko who had to puff and pant all the way down the stairs, heaving a washing basket almost bigger than herself to the machine to do her laundry.

Blinking slowly, her eyes refocused back to the present, the confused little girl took one glance at the face above her. The woman's brow was contorted in a thoughtful frown, and her lips pressed into a thin line. Bright blue eyes rolled to the side, and in disbelief witnessed the lampposts flash by very quickly – just how fast was the woman walking?!

Yawning again, she clutched the coat Anko had wrapped around her more tightly. As the girl's eyelids fluttered shut, she only wondered about how it had been such a terribly long day…

"Hey kid." A voice called through murky darkness. It was oddly gentle...

"Mmhm…" Naruko mewled and snuggled closer to the squishy fleshy mass that radiated warmth against her own body.

"Hey, wake up." The voice called again in a slightly amused tone, and Naruko felt something prod her several times in the ribs, eliciting a soft giggle from the little girl. "We're here."

Naruko let out a languid yawn, but even while being dreadfully tired, the child's curiosity won through. Ever so slowly she sat up, propping herself on her small hands to steady herself. Wobbling slightly still, she carefully opened her eyes. One eye, her right one, still remained half-closed due to the swollen eyelids that still remained from her own fight earlier that day. As Naruko's mind steadily began working at full steam again, she tried to focus and take in her foreign surroundings.

Still somewhat groggy and ignoring the creak of several protesting hinges and the clap of a wooden door being shut, Naruko's first thoughts were something along the lines of; 'This is just like my own apartment!'

And indeed it was, except for the fact there were a few differences. A few _big_ differences.

Instead of one big window that looked out over the busy streets of Konoha and several apartment complexes like hers was, this apartment consisted of a significant amount of large windows with several small glass plates held firmly in place by strips of metal. Through the windows, Naruko could only see various sorts of shrubbery and trees illuminated by moonlight.

The pale beams filtered through, falling on light-brown tatami mats which dominated the room which Naruko found herself in. Strangely enough, in the middle of the room was an odd looking rug patterned with kanji. With all the experience with reading she was taught in Iruka-sensei's classes, she could only make out several of the symbols. Strength, wisdom, intelligence, health and prosperity were most definitely the dominant ones. The kanji were in a various variety of colours that fitted perfectly with the brown -bordering on dark-brown- of the rug itself.

On the rug that dominated the middle of the room, stood a plain four-legged coffee table littered with scrolls of all sizes, both opened and unopened. Aside from the moon, further light during the evening and night was provided by both small and large candles, all set on top of small wooden stools and on numerous gnarled planks that dotted the thick and sturdy walls. Aside from the wooden planks, wall scrolls with an assortment of different quotes and rules were nailed to the wall. One saying: "Without victory, there is only death", contained an extra scrawl at the bottom, curtly proclaiming it would be the case without dango as well.

After taking in the other furnishing –two overly large squashy armchairs laden with an exuberant amount of pillows and the large sofa she found herself on- a slight flickering of light drew Naruko's attention to a corner of the room. Between two of the large windows stood a plain TV-set which was currently switched on and showing a movie of sorts with a strange man wielding a katana as he shouted out some badly synchronised Japanese to his enemies.

Snorting, Naruko bounced back and the same warm and squishy mass she had felt earlier. She turned to the resulting soft sniggering that sounded above her head and immediately fell from the sofa she was sitting on with a strangled yelp.

"Owww…" Naruko moaned pitifully be she furiously rubbed the back of her head.

"Still the idiot I see." The same voice that had awoken her resounded with mirth dulling the sharp edge of the spoken words.

Naruko looked up once more and saw the same woman who had saved her from the large group of people who had set out to hurt her.

Anko's eyes danced with repressed laughter while her lips were curved in a broad smile as she loomed over the six-year old. "Hello."

"Hello…" Naruko replied hesitantly.

The dark-haired Jounin decided this wasn't exactly the best way to start out things with. But it would do. And as she looked down at this young child, who was still cradling her head due to her fall, Anko's smile remained in place. And perhaps, it softened, just slightly…

'Yeah, it'll do…'

* * *

This certainly was a culture shock for Naruko. To go from _not_ being cared for, to actually have someone who actively looked out for her. It felt completely foreign and strange, but she accepted it all the same.

Now, Anko wasn't exactly the gentlest person of the village, but she wouldn't deliberately hurt Naruko. Well, the little girl didn't think so anyway.

She had her doubts though when Anko forced her to have a bath and practically dragged her to the bathroom despite all her futile protests. When they entered a small room which was dominated by a large tub and littered with a small sink and several cabinets that held toiletries, towels and so forth, Naruko was still desperately trying to grab hold of _anything_.

Naruko had adamantly refused to go in the rather large wooden tub -the rim of which was way over her head- filled with steaming water and brightly white foam drifting lazily on top of it. When Anko asked her nicely to get in, the girl sniffed the scented water and shook her head fiercely.

What followed next would surely constitute as comical to some, but it had been terrifying to the small girl. Without warning, and with the seemingly perpetual wicked grin that graced Anko's features, the dark-haired woman effortlessly picked Naruko up, stripped her of the ragged remains of her clothes and dunked her unceremoniously into the tub.

Well she would have, if Naruko hadn't pushed herself up on the sides of the tub with her hands _and_ her feet.

Incensed, Anko proceeded to press ruthlessly on the child's back in an effort to make her give way. But when after three minutes she began panting slightly, and Naruko was still not showing any signs of giving up, Anko decided on a new approach. One that was particularly effective and she would certainly use in years to come. With a maniacal giggle, and with madly waggling fingers, she tickled Naruko in the sides until finally, she retracted her hands and feet to fall into the water with a loud splash, with her mouth still open from laughing so hard.

A smug look plastered on Anko's face, then straightened up to place her hands on her hips. But it quickly disappeared after a fair few moments. Naruko still hadn't resurfaced. The Jounin became slightly worried. Anko hadn't gone through all the trouble of saving the little girl to be killing her herself at home, now had she?

Leaning over the side, she peered down into the water, trying to see what the child was doing. And indeed, she did find out. No sooner did her head hover over the water, did Naruko jump up, spraying water all over the Jounin. Anko had been effectively soaked completely. Naruko took in the sight gleefully, barely holding back a peal of laughter. Several tense seconds followed, until the older woman brushed her sopping wet mass of hair away that was now plastered over her eyes with forced calm.

Naruko's delighted giggles died away slowly. She began to become slightly scared of the lack of response from the dark-haired woman. Anko seemed to notice this, and immediately her cold stare, that usually promised horrendous retribution, softened as she took in the frightened look in those big blue eyes.

"Hey…" She began softly, slowly stretching out her hand to the small girl. She winced noticeably as Naruko backed off quickly, huddling against one of the sides of the tub, as far away from her as she could. Anko froze.

'Who am I kidding?' Anko thought. 'Of course she's going to be scared of me. I only just brought her home with me after all.'

With deliberately slow motions so she wouldn't frighten the girl more, she undressed, allowing her wet clothes to fall on the tiled floor with wet slaps. The dark-haired woman only paused to grab a small towel from a nearly cabinet and used it to cover herself as she made her way over to the girl.

Naruko turned shimmering orbs to the Jounin, analyzing every movement away and clutched herself with shaking hands. After seeing what the older woman had done to that big group of people, she wasn't going to take any chances. There were plenty of events engrained into her memory of being hurt after even the simplest of pranks.

"Y-you're not going to hurt me, are you?" She asked in a small voice and bit her lip.

Anko gave her a gentle smile. "Of course not, Naruko-chan." Slowly she put her first leg into the warm water and let out an audible sigh. "The water feels good, doesn't it?" She asked in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Naruko, however gave her a cramped nod, still not willing to get any closer but unable to stop the other woman from doing so.

When Anko had finally seated herself, undid her hair band and let her slightly spiky hair cascade down her shoulders, she sat for a few moments in silence to let the blonde girl adjust to her presence.

Not really knowing what was going on, Naruko just remained where she was, stealing furtive glances at Anko as she seemed to be perfectly comfortable.

When Anko had moaned and stretched her arms above her head luxuriously, she cracked open one eye after she had closed her eyelids to fully enjoy the water. She was slightly disappointed to see Naruko in her odd position still and decided enough was enough. With swift movements and a loud squeak from the blonde girl, Anko grabbed her, careful to avoid her apparent bruises, and positioned her in front of her, back first.

"Now listen." She whispered in Naruko's ear, her grip on the girl's shoulders firm but gentle. "I'm really not going to hurt you. Not now, not ever."

The girl seemed to relax ever so slightly after those words, but was still way too tense. With another sigh, Anko let the girl's shoulders go, only to wrap her arms around them a moment later. Her tan was a stark contrast with Naruko's own fair skin.

When Naruko felt herself being tightly pressed back into Anko's chest, she let out a watery sniff. "You promise?"

Putting her chin on the child's shoulder, Anko nodded. "I promise."

Silent tears leaked down Naruko's cheeks, mixing with the water that still ran down her long hair and over her face. Anko felt her shoulders shake slightly but chose not to comment on it, instead she remained silent.

A little while later, Anko spoke up again. "Let's get you cleaned up, okay?"

"Okay." Naruko responded, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

* * *

****

****

**_SIX YEARS LATER…_**

A young girl woke up with a startling scream, golden spikes of hair cascading over her large blue eyes, widened in horror…

Said girl immediately bolted upright, her chest heaving slightly. Sheets decorated with tasteful red swirls dropped from her shoulders as she wearily untangled her hands from the sheets and rested them on top of them… then suddenly the hands flew to her face, her features contorted in a look of abject terror. A single hoarse whisper escaped her lips…

'Uh-oh.'

Three seconds later –

"Na-ru-KOOOO!!!!"

Her bedroom door was nearly ripped viciously from its hinges by the sheer force with which it was thrown open.

A woman stood framed in the doorway. Her normally glossy back hair was dishevelled, her clothes in disarray… and dark eyes shooting electric sparks.

Naruko cowered before the raging entity that was Mitarashi Anko.

"_Where's_ - _my_ - _damn_ - _dango_!" An incensed Anko screeched, her dark brown eyes wide and livid. A long slender hand suddenly shot up, fingers trembling with rage as she pointed it at the figure on the bed. "You ate it all again, _didn't you_?!"

A barely audible squeak managed to get past Naruko's lips as she shook her head fiercely.

"LIAR!" Anko shouted in unsuppressed fury and suddenly her hands clenched, and a vein throbbed at her temple. "I'm going to _kill_ you, you little twerp!!!"

With every ounce of agility she possessed, and with years of predicting the enraged woman's movements, Naruko hurtled from her bed and onto the shaggy carpet of her bedroom floor as the older woman literally jumped at her with her arms outstretched. Pillows went flying and sounds of tearing fabric filled the air as Anko missed her target and ripped up everything in her path instead.

Not pausing to thank whatever god who was looking down on her, Naruko took a few swift somersaults to the doorway and promptly bolted out of her room. She didn't dare look back as she heard an inhuman roar behind her.

Oh boy, she had sure botched it up this time.

Nobody. _Nobody_ was allowed to deprive Anko of her carefully cultivated assortment of dango. It was her lifeline, her work of art even…

And Naruko just happened to eat it all after the Jounin had gone to bed the evening before.

'It's her own fault for not buying me any ramen…' Naruko reasoned logically.

Too bad that logic wouldn't save her though. And judging from the stampeding that came ever closer from behind her, she wouldn't have much time to think up a proper excuse either.

Out of instinct, Naruko began to weave from room to room, crashing open the doors shoulder first. If six years of hectic rampaging through Anko's house didn't make you an expert on where everything was exactly, Naruko didn't know what would. Her weaving became more frantic as the screaming and raving behind her became louder and various objects sailed over her head and past her upper body.

"Anko nee-chan sure is serious today." The blonde girl grunted as she ducked her head to avoid a particularly large object. 'Was that a chair?!'

"_Stand still_!" A roar resounded close by.

Naruko however, grasped a rather chipped doorframe –its paint and woodwork having slightly decayed over the past few years due to both of their rather rambunctious nature- and spun a sharp ninety degrees straight into another room.

The dark-haired female swore loudly as she steamed straight past the door and lost sight of her target.

Grinning wickedly as she heard a rather nasty thunk of flesh hitting wood, Naruko quickly let her eyes drift through the room. It seemed she had made a slight miscalculation.

'Well crap.' She thought glumly.

Whereas she thought she had entered a room with several escape options, the blonde girl found herself at a dead-end. In their only bathroom of all places. A few years ago she might have wiggled out of the small window in the top-left corner. But she had grown. Naruko was still small, but was too big to fit through the window anyway.

Looking for a spot to hide, she quickly found one and after taking a deep breath, headed there as quickly as she could.

Anko, on the other hand, was enraged. Today she would get back at that kid if it was the last thing she would ever do. 'How _dare_ she eat my precious dango?! She knows it's sacred to me!' Rubbing her nose gingerly, -for she had slammed face first into a closed door when she ran past the room Naruko had entered after all- she stalked backwards.

A Cheshire grin transformed her face into something truly wicked. She was having some rather malicious thoughts right now. Oh yes she was.

She knew that Naruko had fowled up. She knew that the young girl was trapped. And she _knew_ that now the time had come for her most righteous revenge.

Even the demons of old would shudder at the horrible torture the –still young as she so often proclaimed- Jounin was able to exact on her poor victims.

"Oh, Naruko-chaaaaan. Where aaaaaare youuuu?" She called out in an overly sweet tone, tapping her fingers on either side of the doorposts. Somewhere outside, a pack of wolves already started howling. And somewhere inside the bathroom, a blue-eyed little girl started shivering uncontrollably.

"I know you're in here. There's no use in hiding." Anko continued, unperturbed by the fact she got no reply. "I won't hurt you… _much_..." She added as an afterthought.

Chocolate-brown eyes sparkled as they caught a hint of movement at the precipice of her field of vision. It hadn't been much, just a tiny tremor. Anko chuckled throatily as she moved silently from the open door to what appeared to be a laundry-basket. It was a simple thing, made out of tastefully entwined reed, and just big enough to hold a certain twelve-year old…

A perfect hiding place…

Bared teeth glinted dangerously as the basket wobbled ever so slightly.

'This is too good to be true.' Anko wondered in amazement. 'Oh-ho, you're mine!'

With what could only be described as a feral scream, she pounced on the laundry-basket, ripping off the lid at the same time in one fluid motion. Immediately she began groping in the large assortment of clothing, only to find…

"Eeeeeeh?! Where is… Ack!" Anko let out a yelp of surprise when she felt herself being pushed in the small of her back, inadvertently forced headfirst into the basket she had been searching through in the first place.

Behind her, a rather smug-looking Naruko was barely able to stop her from laughing. She was still surprised though about having been able to fool the older Jounin. Was this finally the day? The day that the student out-pranked the master?

Not daring to take any chances, Naruko spun on her heels and wanted to make a beeline straight out of the bathroom. Until…

"Not. So. Fast." Someone growled ominously, freezing the girl in her tracks.

"Eep!" Blue eyes grew frightfully large as a rather peeved Anko made her way over to her –a pale-blue sock dangling in her black hair.

"You didn't _really_ think you could get away with what you did, did you?" Was the following dangerous hiss as Anko sat back on her haunches and stared Naruko straight in the eyes.

Not even daring to shake her head, the blonde girl stood perfectly still. 'Maybe she'll think I'm dead, maybe she'll think I'm dead!' This was of course hopeful thinking. The older woman might show some animalistic traits every now and again, but mostly she was just slightly sadistic. She loved watching people squirm, and no one other than Naruko knew that better.

It had been a good six years so far, the blonde girl reckoned. It seemed today really would be her last…

"But…"

"But?" Naruko mirrored without thinking.

"I'm going to let you go right now, since you need to be on time." Anko sighed, shaking her head sadly. She really had wanted to get back at Naruko…

The young girl couldn't believe her ears. Was she getting off this easily?

"But!" The woman said sharply.

Ah, another but. There it was…

"Don't think you're getting away with this that easily. You owe me, big-time."

The girl just nodded, elated by the fact she wouldn't get horribly disembowelled or something along those lines today. She had no doubt though that Anko would one day collect on her debt. And even though it would probably be something really embarrassing –'…or painful.' Naruko thought with a wince- she was still going to grab this opportunity with both hands.

"Thanks, nee-chan!" Naruko squealed –as the dark-haired woman seemed to be a sucker for "cute" sounds and other things- and flung her arms around her neck, adding a quick peck to the cheek for good measure.

"Yeah, yeah." Anko sighed, trying her best to keep the annoyed look plastered on her face and failing miserably. She mentally cursed the twitching corners of her lips.

In what seemed to be no time at all, Naruko dashed out of the bathroom, only to return quickly and fully dressed.

Anko smirked as she saw the girl's attire. Although she had certainly rubbed off on Naruko's sense of fashion, their sense of style was distinctively different. While Anko didn't care if she flaunted her own body, Naruko was slightly more reserved. However, both of them were, figuratively and quite literally, dressed to kill.

Both of them had a different approach on how to achieve a wide range of mobility. Anko had achieved this by covering the majority of her body in netting, only covering up enough with a rather short skirt and a trench coat.

It had taken years for Anko to get rid of Naruko's horrible fetish with the colour orange, but she had succeeded. At least she didn't seem like a bright road marker to potential enemies anymore. Like her, the girl had adopted to wearing a fishnet bodice, only this one clung high to her neck like a choker yet left her arms bare.

Instead of exposing her belly and bust to view, Naruko had also found a simple seamless dress she wore nearly everyday. It was pale grey, made out of good durable cloth, and no tears were visible to the naked eye. Because of her smaller frame, the dress didn't hug tightly around her like it was intended for. This sleeveless shift stretched from just above her still-developing bosom and to the middle of her thighs, enabled her to move more freely, allowing maximum movement of her slender shoulders and arms.

Naruko sometimes still complained about the shortness of the dress, because her netting still peeked out from under it, as her bodice ended just above the knees, and because her shoulders and collarbones were still displayed prominently. But Anko had simply whacked her on the head and told her to shut up because she looked fine.

Barely noticing the girl finishing drying her medium-length and spiky hair and tying the goggles she had given her on her tenth birthday securely on her forehead as she spat out the remains of toothpaste from her mouth into the sink, Anko only had the chance to see Naruko zoom out of the bathroom.

"Hey, wait up!" Anko said suddenly.

"What is it?" Was the muffled reply.

'Damn that girl moves fast!' Complaining mentally, the dark-haired Jounin stepped into Naruko's room. She bit back a wince as she saw the mess they, well rather _she_, had made then focused on Naruko who was currently fastening her sandals on her feet.

"What?" The girl asked, one of her eyebrows lifting slightly as Anko stared at her silently.

Snapping out of her slight daze, the woman smiled warmly. "Just… Have fun today, okay?"

"Yeah, I will!" Naruko grinned and nodded, picking up her dark-blue jacket. "I'm going to get back at Kiba for mooning me yesterday!" She laughed, and put a foot on her bedroom's windowsill. "Well, see ya!" The girl shot back over her shoulder as she jumped out of her window.

Sighing and hanging her head slightly, Anko watched the girl go.

Though she made a point not to tell Naruko, she was worried. The Academy's graduation exams were fast approaching. 'If only Naruko-chan can make it this year…' She mused. Anko was by no means disappointed in Naruko's academic results. Like her, what the girl lacked in book-smarts she made up with raw physical energy. Who wanted to know how this and that were named when you could use that particular object to beat your opponent to death?

It had always worked for her at least…

Moving to the girl's bed and bending down to pick up two pillows from the floor, Anko reminisced on her time she had spent with Naruko. She had certainly grown up so fast. Without knowing why, a particular memory suddenly popped up in her mind and made her snigger.

The first time Naruko ever went through PMS… Oh the horror…

The hysterical, and not to mention _extremely_ loud screams still echoed through Anko's mind. That particular morning, Naruko had woken up and seen something in her bed she had not expected to see…

'_Anko nee-chan!!! I'm _dying_!!!'_

She had a hell of a time trying to explain the proverbial "birds" and "bees" to Naruko. It wasn't as if Anko was a prude for not informing her sooner. It was only because she thought the girl wouldn't need that information so soon. Besides, she still got the urge to beat the crap out of any guy coming within a one-meter radius of the blonde child. It wasn't as if it would have done her any good anyway...

Regardless, it had been a slightly embarrassing, if not harrowing, experience. After Naruko had gotten past the first shock, and subsequent disgust, she kept nagging Anko about things she would never have asked about before. But still, now she had gained this new knowledge, there was now a slight reserve in whatever Naruko dealt with, and she never looked at boys quite the same way anymore.

With a gentle shake of her head, Anko resumed the cleaning of Naruko's room. Maybe she could get a mission from that old geezer today. Lately he had been suspiciously reluctant in giving her some high-rank missions…

* * *

"Nee-chan! Nee-chan!" A jubilant exclamation sounded through Anko's house, followed swiftly by the sharp snap of a door being slammed shut.

"What is it, Naruko-chan?" Anko called back, not surprised in the slightest about Naruko's energetic disposition.

Skidding to a stop in front of her self-proclaimed older sister, Naruko beamed the brightest smile she could muster. "I _so_ kicked Kiba's ass today!"

Anko could already imagine the various reactions 'normal' parents would respond with to this message, but the slightly sadistic Jounin smirked and ruffled Naruko's hair affectionately. "Great job, you sure showed those dog-loving bastards!"

Naruko pouted and raked her hands through her hair. Not that it did her any good though. Ever since she started keeping it short, -well, short_er-_ her natural spikiness was allowed free reign. This resulted in a near untameable mass that despite everything, maintained to still look great. It shone with a brilliance and energy rarely seen and was only matched by the sparkle in her brilliantly blue eyes.

Naruko wasn't vain really. But anyone touching her hair aside from Anko would die on the spot... In a particularly gruesome fashion…

Waiting for Naruko to re-arrange her hair to her own liking, –and having it spring back immediately- Anko winked at the girl. "I think that deserves a special treat!"

"Really?!" Naruko exclaimed happily. She sure was a sucker for rewards…

"Yes, really." Anko affirmed with a nod and tapped her index finger on her chin thoughtfully. "Hmmm, what would be a good thing to give you…"

Anko already knew what she was going to give Naruko. But seeing the little girl bounce impatiently from side to side in front of her was still loads of fun. When she remained silent for a few minutes, Naruko couldn't take it anymore.

"Nee-_chaaaaaaaaaan_!!!"

"Alright, alright. Don't get your panties in a twist." Anko laughed and once again ruffled Naruko's hair –and immediately had her hand swatted away before she could do too much damage. "I know." She said brightly and clapped her hands together in front of her.

"Mm? Mhmm?" Naruko hummed in an effort to hurry her sister up.

"Ramen!" Anko finally shouted and pumped her fists into the air, her eyes closing to a happy crinkle.

Naruko nearly face-faulted. "Ramen?!"

Her fists coming down, Anko looked concernedly at the slightly put-out blonde girl. "What? I thought you loved ramen?"

"Well yeah…" Naruko acknowledged. And indeed, it was on the top of her list of favourite foods. "But…"

"But what?" The raven-haired Jounin prompted her.

Poking the tips of her index fingers together, Naruko stared at the floor. "I thought… Maybe, you could teach me a new Jutsu…"

"A Jutsu huh?" Anko murmured and saw the blonde girl give an uncharacteristically shy nod. "Well… I suppose I _could_…"

Naruko's head snapped upwards, her mouth curved upwards in a hopeful smile. "Really?"

"But on one condition!" Anko warned her and held up a single finger to accentuate her point.

"What?! I'll do anything!" Naruko shouted, all inhibitions lost at the prospect of learning a new technique, and spread her arms wide to show how much she was actually willing to do.

Anko merely grinned broadly. "After I've taught you this, you have to beat that little twerp again with it!"

Thegrin now being mirrored on Naruko's features, theyoung girl nodded happily.

Somewhere in a cluttered room, dog toys and other things strewn across the floor, a certain Inuzuka Kiba, who was nursing his bruises from his earlier fight with a blonde girl, suddenly sneezed twice in succession. Blinking in confusion at the sudden hay fever attack, his face cleared.

"Ahh, must be some pretty girl thinking about me …" Sniffling happily, he wiped his nose. "Hm, maybe even two pretty girls."

Akamaru, however looked up from where he was lying nearby and whined pitifully.

* * *

While Naruko had been slightly disappointed at not being taught the new technique right after Anko had promised her she would, the older woman had told her she would do it when they both would have more time. But for now, she had sent the blonde girl on a mission.

A mission of great importance, and one that was almost completed…

"What is that brat doing?!"

"She's desecrating the Hokage-monument!"

"Has anyone called the ANBU?!"

"You'll pay for this!"

Naruko howled with laughter as she heard the roaring crowd from beneath her and heard their cries of outrage as they pointed impotently at the girl as she was, quite literally, defacing the face of one of the past Hokage. Sandaime as a matter of fact. And she was quite proud of having already smeared copious amounts of colourful paint in tasteful swirls and other forms on their faces.

With another long swath of her heavy paintbrush –and finishing a moustache under the third's rather prominent nose- she craned her neck to look down at the crowd below from the harness she was currently fitted in. It had been slightly dizzying, but Naruko had managed to suspend herself from a rope fastened at the top of the monument, it gave her free access to all of the faces. Perfect for her latest prank.

She grinned at the enraged faces of the people on the ground and stuck her pink tongue out at them and giving them the evil eye at the same time. "Shut up you bastards! None of you could do something this horrible, but I can! Because I'm the great Mitarashi Naruko; future Hokage!"

More screams and roars followed her bold statement, just before one stood out like no other.

"Naruko! What the hell are you doing during class-time?! Get down from there, you moron!"

"Aah! That's Iruka-sensei!" The girl yelped and in a great panic she dropped the bucket of paint and the brush she had been holding, which was quickly followed by a rather satisfying yelp of someone getting splattered in paint.

Clambering up the rope as fast as she could, Naruko tried to make a quick escape before her teacher would be able to get her. She was sorely disappointed though…

As she finally hoisted herself up on the precipice of the Hokage monument, she let out a grunt which was followed by a series of sharp wheezes as she struggled to regain her breath.

"Naruko..."

An ominous growl resounded above her, and the girl froze.

"Aw shit…" Naruko cursed before she felt herself being lifted by the back of her jacket. 'Man this is embarrassing…'

"Naruko…" The same growl and now the blonde found herself face to face with the only teacher she remotely respected, and maybe, just maybe, slightly feared.

"Hehehehe…" Naruko chuckled nervously as she scratched the back of her head. "Nice day today, isn't it, Iruka-sensei?"

Needless to say, he didn't agree. So, after receiving an earful on how her latest prank was her worst yet –Naruko had disagreed on that particular point, which only served to anger her teacher more-, the girl heard her teacher use some rather colourful language as he dragged her of to a somewhat familiar place. Some of which she hadn't even heard before and some she was sure even Anko wouldn't use. And that was saying a lot…

Speaking of Anko…

"Anko-san!" Iruka cried out, clamping his hand on Naruko's shoulder, who stood with her arms folded in front of her chest, scowling miserably.

A few tense seconds passed before a grinning Anko appeared out of nowhere in front of the two.

Naruko involuntarily jumped back. "Damn teleportation Jutsu." She muttered.

"Heya, Iruka-kun!" Anko said jovially, waving at the kind-hearted teacher. "Have you come to play?"

Blushing heavily, the Chuunin shook his head. "No, Anko-san." He said gravely. Well, he tried to, but his bluster had died down somewhat at the sight of what was technically his superior.

"Then what… oh! Hey Naruko-chan!" Anko continued innocently, taking notice of the blonde girl who still stood scowling. "Is this a field-trip or something? But if it is, why did you come to our house?"

"Anko-san…" Iruka said exasperatedly, scratching his nose.

"Well spill it then! What's going on?" Was the impatient reply.

Instead of answering right away, Iruka pushed Naruko in front of him and pointed at her. "Naruko got herself in a bit of trouble…"

The dark-haired woman looked down at the girl, giving her a conspicuous wink which Iruka didn't notice and then nodded her head knowingly. "Ohhh, what has the brat done now?" She let out in an overly dramatic, long-suffering sigh.

Nonplussed, Iruka cleared his throat and patted Naruko's shoulders. "I don't know if I can handle her anymore, Anko-san. She did something truly horrible today. She made a mockery of the Hokage monument!"

"Did she now?" The Jounin replied, trying her best to prevent herself from laughing outright.

"Yes! This cannot go unpunished!" He said fervently.

"I quite agree!" Anko nodded.

"I mean she can't be allowed to… huh, you do?" Now Iruka was truly confused. Here was possibly the most zealous prankster of the village, and instead of hooting like a madwoman as he expected her to do, she… agreed with him?

Stepping forward, and placing one of her hands on Iruka's, Anko nodded again. "Yes, I do." She said softly and trailed her hand up his arm, over his shoulder and finally placed it on his cheek. "Don't worry, I will make very, _very_ sure she is punished accordingly…"

While this was all going on, Naruko couldn't help but grin. 'Iruka-sensei is such a sucker for Anko-nee-chan.'

And she was right. Bells and whistles went off inside Iruka's head warning him of a possible meltdown. If he was anything, he was shy around women. Especially around _forward_ women like Anko. A fact that she exploited eagerly.

Though he had previous experience with the woman, most of which was rather unpleasant and made him slightly scared of the imposing Jounin, there was something about her that…

"Now why don't you just leave her with me. I'm sure your class is waiting for your return." Iruka heard her whisper in his ear, halting his train of thought.

"Yes…" He said, his anger leaving him rapidly until he was pretty much devoid of rational thought. "I think… I think I'll head back then… And Naruko, don't do it again…"

"Bye, Iruka-sensei!" The girl snorted, giving the teacher a mock-salute.

Something stuck in the back of his fogged brain. His student seemed oddly happy of being left in the care of Anko… But he shrugged it off. He had to make sure someone would clean up the mess Naruko's mess. He wondered… A special fieldtrip for his students sounded good right about now…

Iruka never noticed the high-five Anko and Naruko exchanged or the laughter behind their hands as they pointed at him. And he most definitely didn't notice the two of them walking around their house to clean up a significant number of empty paint cans.

* * *

"Hey, Hinata-chan!" An excited Naruko yelled as she made her way closer to a rather nervous looking girl with navy-blue hair.

Hyuuga Hinata; she was the hyperactive blonde's best friend. And even if Naruko hadn't said that out loud, Hinata still knew and was deeply grateful. No other girl had seemed to want to get close to her. Partly it had been her own fault, since she had been rather reclusive. But instead of giving up, Naruko kept on talking to her. Telling her about her latest pranks. And asking Hinata about the things _she_ had done.

The girl swivelled on her feet and nearly tripped over in the process. Naruko, thankfully, was close enough to catch her before she would kiss the dirt.

Crimson crept its way to Hinata's cheeks. "I-I'm sorry N-naruko-chan…" She stammered as an apology.

Naruko stared at her curiously. "Huh? What are you apologizing for?"

"O-oh… N-nothing…" The blue-haired girl whispered and stared at the ground.

"Eh?" Naruko raised an eyebrow. "You're weird, Hinata-chan!"

Hinata remained silent, deciding the dirt was rather interesting to stare at. That was, until she felt an arm loop its way around her right arm.

"Come on. You know I was kidding, right?" Naruko asked and tugged on Hinata's arm to gain her attention. "I don't think you're weird… Well, maybe just a little bit…"

Hinata looked positively ready to cry, which didn't go unnoticed by the blonde girl. "But it's a good weird!" She added hastily to cover up for her blunder.

"I-if y-you say so…" Hinata amended softly. "W-why don't w-we go to class?"

"Oh, right! Graduation exams are today!" Naruko yelled loudly which caused Hinata to flinch visibly before she felt another tug on her arm. She turned her head sideways slightly and saw Naruko pump a fist repeatedly in the air. "Let's gooooo!!!"

Even while feeling slightly embarrassed, Hinata couldn't help but smile just a little bit.

* * *

Ten minutes later, Hinata and Naruko barged into a rather rowdy looking classroom with a man, obviously a teacher, with a long scar across the bridge of his nose and cheekbones and a ponytail, looking forlornly at the children in front of him as he sat behind his desk. Well actually, it was Naruko who barged in, wordlessly proclaiming that she had arrived. Hinata lagged behind like a silent shadow, trying desperately not to be noticed.

Though Hinata's effort were commendable, they were ultimately futile as Naruko picked that particular moment to shout out their arrival just in case anyone had missed them.

"Oi, you lazy bums!" She shouted loudly and caused every head to turn in their direction. "Me and Hinata-chan…" Naruko paused here to wrap an arm around the poor girl's shoulders and shake her affectionately. "…Are gonna leave you guys in the dust!"

During the painful silence that followed, disbelieving stares framed the majority of the faces in the classroom.

"Hehe, we sure showed them! Didn't we, Hinata-chan?" Naruko whispered behind an outstretched hand as she leaned over to the other girl.

Hinata, however was completely mortified. 'Oh no!' She thought franticly and her lower lip started trembling. "Y-you s-shouldn't have d-d-done that..."

"Why not?" Naruko asked while smiling broadly.

Before Hinata got a chance to answer though, a duo of angry looking girls literally stomped through several rows of benches and over to where they were standing –which was still by the door.

"Naruko!" A pink-haired girl with a rather large forehead growled ominously.

The other, a very skinny blonde with angry blue eyes backed her up. "Why are you so loud!? You're interrupting our conquest of Sasuke-kun's heart!"

"Sakura-chan, Ino-chan, we're…" Hinata started but was cut off by an equally angered Naruko.

"Shove off, pinky and matchstick! What's so great about that moody Uchiha bastard anyway?!" Naruko shouted, pointing at the person in question who was hunched over his bench, his hands entwined before his face and doing his very best to ignore the whole thing. "He's a damn emotionally challenged dimwit!"

"Pinky?!"

"Matchstick?!"

"Yeah, you got a problem with that?!" Naruko asked, quite proud of herself for coming up with such aptly chosen insults.

"Yeah we've got a problem with that!" The two girls screeched at the same time and raised their fists at Naruko. "And you'll pay for insulting our dear Sasuke-kun!"

"Settle down!" Iruka shouted over the tumult in a desperate attempt to flex his authority. "Go back to your seats, all of you!"

Grudgingly and with scowls that promised retribution, Sakura and Ino backed off, and stalked towards their seats.

Naruko only grinned, spotted two free spots after giving the classroom a brief scan with her bright blue eyes and dragged a still stammering Hinata along with her.

"Naruko-chan…" She whispered softly, not even trying to resist the other girl.

The blonde Genin-to-be merely ignored her. She was too used to Hinata to be surprised about her shy nature. Instead she continued her hold on her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze to let her know it was alright.

For the next hour, five minutes of which Naruko managed to stay awake for since she had heard it two times before, Iruka instructed them on their possible future as Genin, and quite possibly their future promotions to Chuunin and Jounin. He even made a point to tell them about possible career paths, telling them they need not only be fighting for their lives, but could fight against suffering and death as medic-nin. Or they could choose the path of administrating-personnel to the third Hokage –or any Hokage after that for that matter. The list went on and on, and when Iruka was finally finished –gulping down a whole glass of water after talking for so long, Hinata inconspicuously poked Naruko in the side, causing said girl to wake up with a startled yelp.

Reassessing her bearings, Naruko looked around until she focused on the demure girl next to her. "Thanks Hinata-chan."

Hinata blushed. "You're welcome…"

"Oi, oi, what did I say about being so timid last week?" The blonde girl told her and wrapped an arm around Hinata's shoulders.

"Y-you said I should b-be more a-assertive…" Hinata acquiesced.

"I did?" Naruko questioned, scratching her chin with one finger as a veritable question mark appeared over her head. She couldn't remember using a word like that… "Anyway," she exclaimed, "you should be louder! Like me!" She finished by pointing at herself with a beaming smile.

"O-okay…" The blue-haired girl agreed, and began fiddling with her fingers just before Naruko clamped her own hands over them.

"And no doing weird stuff with your fingers too. If you have to use them, use them to punch somebody's lights out!" Naruko laughed. "Or gouge out somebody's eyes!" She continued, listing several gruesome ways to use your fingers.

Hinata's head threatened to pop off from all the blood that was steadily being pumped to her face. By now, most of the class was looking at them, and even Iruka -who had announced that they would have a slight break before he would announce what the test would be about, gave them an odd look. But for some reason, the most embarrassing for some reason was Naruko still holding her hands. Hinata could not really explain why.

'They're really soft…' Hinata thought to herself, and then shook her head forcefully, which earned her more stares. 'What am I thinking?!'

"…You could pinch their nipples really, _really_ hard. That would be fun…"

Naruko was still going strong and showed no signs of stopping until Hinata cleared her throat tactfully.

"…or, huh? What? What is it Hinata-chan?" Naruko asked as she shifted her gaze to the other girl.

Hinata merely pointed silently over Naruko's shoulder. The blonde girl shifted on her bench to look at where the Hyuuga-heiress was pointing and began chuckling nervously.

"Hehehe, Iruka-sensei…" She began softly in an effort to calm the teacher.

"Naruko…" He growled. "Thinking up ways to torture people, are you?"

"No, no! Of course I wouldn't, Iruka-sensei! Right, Hinata-chan?" Naruko protested in mock indignation and turned to her friend for support, to which Hinata nodded dutifully. "Who do you take me for? Anko-nee-chan?"

Those seemed to be the magic words as Iruka suddenly began scanning the classroom nervously. "N-no, of course not." He stuttered hastily.

"Hehehe…" Naruko grinned and winked at Hinata who was looking quite puzzled.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the village, well Naruko and Anko liked to think so -Iruka did too, but they didn't really care-, they had "played with him" the night before after the whole Hokage monument debacle. Anko had actually, but had told Naruko all about it, every glorious detail to the blonde girl's delight. It seemed that the under-paid Chuunin slash teacher had gone to the public bathhouse after his plumbing "mysteriously" clogged up. To make matters worse, his clothing had undergone a "strange" transformation during his refreshing bath.

To make a long story short, he had been forced to sneak back to his house, wearing his clothes that had been dyed in a clashing mix of sickly green and girlish pink. Along with these colours, several phrases had been placed on his front and back, some of them along the lines of: "Iruka-kun is a cutie-pie", "I bow down to my mistress" and of course some things that just weren't proper to repeat in public.

Iruka cleared his throat, forcing away his rather unpleasant memories of this not so isolated incident, desperate to move on to a new subject.

"Right." He coughed again and shot Naruko -who was leaning backwards feeling quite content with herself-, a nervous glance. "Now, it's time for the exam!"

"Yes!" Naruko exclaimed happily and burst from her seat like a veritable jack-in-the-box.

"This time the subject will be: Bunshin-no-Jutsu!"

Iruka waited for the eventual rowdy response, and wasn't disappointed. Cries of outrage filled his ears only to be punctuated by regular loud thumps. Letting his eyes wander for a moment to locate the source, his eyes fell upon a Naruko, slumped over and banging her forehead on her wooden desk, flanked by a panicky Hinata.

'Damn…' Naruko thought, ignoring everything around her as her confidence crashed like an inbound comet. 'That's my worst skill…'

Hinata, who knew that already, stared worriedly at the person she secretly, and not so secretly, admired so much. 'Don't worry, Naruko-chan.' She mentally comforted the other girl. 'You won't fail this year.'

Sadly, she would be proven wrong…

* * *

Some nerve-wracking minutes later, Naruko was finally called into a small side-room by Iruka, flanked by another teacher. If Naruko wasn't mistaken, his name was Mizuki. Or something like that anyway…

"State your name." Mizuki ordered in a lazy drawl, giving Naruko a peculiar look as she stood before them with her hands on her hips, tugging on her dress impatiently while he shuffled some papers on his desk.

Iruka stared at him for a few moments before giving the girl an encouraging smile.

The twelve-year old grinned broadly and ran a hand through her spiky hair before she pointed at the two teachers in a threatening manner. "Naruko! Mitarashi Naruko! And I'm going to kick all of you bastard's asses!"

"Naruko…" Iruka shook his head in disbelief. "You just have to make a few clones. You don't have to fight us…"

"Oh…" Naruko deadpanned. 'Well that's disappointing…' She thought glumly. If she was supposed to perform her worst skill, she wanted to do something exciting with it, not just make a fool out of herself…

"Anytime you're ready, Naruko." Iruka supplied.

"Right…" Naruko gulped and placed her feet at shoulders width, using her hands to form the necessary ram seal. Unable to take the scrutiny of both teachers, she closed her eyes and concentrated as best as she could.

'Focus, focus, focus!' She kept repeating to herself like a mantra…

* * *

She looked on from her swing. Watching every other classmate being patted on the back, receiving compliments from her family.

'Damnit…'

Their radiant smiles and those happy twinkles in their eyes.

'Damnit!'

Why couldn't she be one of them, why didn't she pass?

'It's all my fault… Why am I so…'

She was glad that her big sister wasn't able to make it today. Naruko wouldn't be able to face her. How could she? Anko would probably say it was alright, and say that there was always next year. But the disappointment that would be so apparent in her eyes… Those chocolate-brown orbs full of warmth would lose just the tiniest amount of their pride. And that more than she could bear.

'Why am I so _weak_?!'

She couldn't come home and say she failed. Not again…

Looking up, Naruko saw the sympathetic smile, Iruka sent her way before he walked away with a short old geezer, whom the girl recognized as Sandaime. The third Hokage. Yet instead of being comforted, Naruko only grew angrier.

How dare he fail her! She had tried so hard!

It wasn't her fault that Bunshin-no-Jutsu was her worst skill. It wasn't her fault that they had somehow managed to make it part of the exam three damn years in a row!

Jumping off the swing, she turned to the tree it was suspended on and punched the thick trunk as hard as she could. Naruko ignored the pain as it shot through her arm.

It was nothing compared to the giant blow to her self-esteem.

"He didn't do it on purpose you know…" A voice said behind her.

Startled, Naruko spun around. "Mizuki-sensei…"

"He's just a serious person…" He continued unperturbed and sat next to her on the ground and settled himself against the tree.

Naruko lowered her eyes. "But why does he only pick on me?" She whispered and kicked the dirt with her foot sending a cloud of dust into the air before it was swept away.

"He doesn't. It only seems that way." Mizuki chuckled and leaned forwards. "You're quite a handful."

"Well it sure seems that way." Naruko retorted, her voice rising slightly to make her anger apparent.

Mizuki made a non-committal sound and stayed silent.

The blonde girl sighed. "I just wish I had graduated…"

As he heard her disappointment, Mizuki gave her a sideways glance, and said something that perked Naruko's attention. "Well then, I'll tell you a special secret…"

* * *

****

****

**_A/N:_**

**_Porcine: Someone/something resembling a swine or pig._**

_Yeah, so uhm, it took a bit longer than I expected, but here it is. I hope you enjoyed reading it because I put quite a bit of effort into it. And the length alone should attest to that, don't you think? I'm not really happy about how it turned out, but I guess it isn't half-bad._

_There seemed to have been some slight confusion going on with some reviews, so I'll clear it up here again. Anko is not getting together with Naruko. Sorry folks, the age difference is too big. I may do one with that pairing later. Well with the "normal" Naruto anyway._

_And please don't worry about the sudden time-jump. I will probably put some flashbacks or memories in later chapters. I mean, Anko trying to raise a little kid is too good of an opportunity to give up, right?_

_Before I go to the review response, I'd like to thank Princess-Tsunade for beta-ing this chapter for me. Sorry for giving you such a hassle, princess._

_Well here we go then:_

_**Princess-Tsunade:** I hope you enjoyed the chapter despite my constant whining. Thanks again for the kind words and the help you've given me. Discussing her clothing at 3 am… Honestly… ; )_

_**Yondaime-samaKazaraYume:** I dropped ya a review today. Sorry it was so brief, but I didn't really know what to say._

_**SxStrngSamurai13:** God, don't worry. I won't let her go off with Sasuke. I hate him as I've said tons of times before._

_**Dragon Man 180:** Well I replied to your email, so… But thanks for the review!_

_**Buku Schk Long:** Well it's your own choice if you dislike Yuri or Yaoi (I dislike Yaoi which makes me kind of a hypocrite, but meh). I took your suggestion about the pitchforks etc, as I reread the first chapters it did seem a tad too much. I changed it in any case. And about the last name? Hmm, well as I'll be explaining more about it in the next chapter I won't go into detail here, but I don't really understand why you would be so upset about it. Oh well, I hope this chapter has been able to give you a few chuckles at least._

_**Stratagemini: **Well as you've seen in this chapter, Naruko failed. But that was to be expected. But don't worry, she'll have a few surprises up her sleeve. Thanks for the review!_

_**En Satsu Koku Ryuu Ha:** No Anko/Naru pairing I'm afraid. And I haven't been able to work on DYHM yet since I've focused on this one instead for now. But don't worry, I'll update again but you'll have to wait a bit longer._

_**Frank Moore:** Well I don't plan to stop in the middle with this, I'm quite motivated to finish my fics. And about Naruko's attacks, well, you'll have to wait and see. You got the gist of it though. ; )_

_**Seravy:** Thanks for your kind words. Your own works are insurmountably better though. I'm afraid this chapter didn't flow as much as the first one did, but it'll do I guess. Thanks for the review!_

_**FenrisLupus: **Thanks for the review mate. And if I inspire you, why haven't you released a chapter again eh? I wanna read more!_

_**Me**, **Ventmonster**, **Chedving**, **Jimbo**, **Chaos-Sempai**, **trent**, (wow, that's a rather short nickname don't you think?), **Andreas**, **Leo-Yoko**, **Kittfox**. Thanks a million for your reviews as well._

_There you have it, please leave a review for me so I can giggle with joy when I read them! Okay, so I won't giggle, but I'll smile. Really!_

* * *

**Preview for the next chapter:**

"Sensei, you _can't _be serious!" Shikamaru shouted in indignation, his lazy attitude completely forgotten. "You can't put me with those two… those two _girls_!"

Iruka barely held back a smile. "I'm sorry, Shikamaru. But that's just the way it is. Now you and your team-mates wait here. Your Jounin instructor will be here shortly."

* * *

And now for a final closing point, I would like to give you a few titles of fics I think you should read, and please give them a review as well, they truly deserve it! (remove the stripes from the links)

-http-:-www-fanfiction-net-/s/2161-752/1

All that made me, me

Based around Anko, an awesome fic describing the childhood of Mitarashi Anko. I couldn't have done it better myself. Please give it a go.

-http-:-www-fanfiction-net-/s/2170-425/1

Forged in Water

Gives you an interesting peak into the possible past of Kisame, but is based around a cousin of his. It is really well written, you'll be missing out if you don't read this.


	3. Unveiling the Traitors

**Altered Destiny:****  
**  
Title subject to change, rating PG13 to be on the safe side.

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, I do own the plot of this story (for as far as there is one) and the extra characters I may or may not add._

_Response to reviews at the bottom, be sure to read the A/N's._

**Chapter 03 – Unveiling the Traitors:**

_The blonde girl sighed. "I just wish I had graduated…"_

_As he heard her disappointment, Mizuki gave her a sideways glance, and said something that perked Naruko's attention. "Well then, I'll tell you a special secret…"_

**(Warning: This is an unbeta-ed version of Chapter 03. I'm releasing it now, because I've taken too long without releasing a chapter already. Please excuse any errors that are undoubtedly here. The beta-ed version will be up as soon as possible, I'll put it on my page when it's uploaded.)**

* * *

The evening sun, with its dying golden rays, sank slowly beneath the horizon. A lone figure sat atop a roof, knees huddled to her chest, watching it disappear completely. When darkness had engulfed her village, she stood up and jump towards her destination…

A short distance away, unnoticed by the figure, someone else stood, watching her disappear with a grim smile…

* * *

"Shit!" Naruko swore as she nearly slipped from the slick roof tiles, barely steadying herself by grabbing the tin drainage pipe which was fastened against a rather shabby looking wall.

She peered over the side of the narrow roof, and saw nothing but inky darkness. Naruko gulped, for she knew that instead of falling into a never ending oblivion she would have crashed on the hard cobblestones of one of Konoha's many alleyways. It was something she _definitely_ didn't want to experience.

Not to mention that Anko would pound her into oblivion for attempting this rather stupid stunt. _If_ she would have survived the fall anyway…

Naruko and Anko had done some strange and awe-inspiring things together, but her older sister had always mentioned that where she was going now, was strictly off-limits.

'Why Anko-nee-chan respects that old coot, I'll never know…' Naruko sighed and shook her head before making her way towards the centre-building of Konoha. The hub of all Ninja-related activity.

The Hokage's tower…

Half a dozen of death-defying long distance jumps and mind-boggling airborne flips and turns later, she reached her destination. As the girl held on tightly to the windowsill of what she guessed was the fourth floor, she looked up.

She still had quite a way to go…

Her nostrils flaring as she let out a resigned snort, Naruko gathered her chakra in her hands and feet. It had taken Anko years to literally beat the knowledge into the girl's brains before she got the hang of it.

Well, that was rather subjective actually… If you called a twenty-five percent chance that she would fail miserably and fall flat on her behind getting the hang of it anyway…

With a great deal of effort, she maintained a continuous flow of chakra. Gingerly, Naruko placed her hands on either side of the window. She pulled herself up some, testing if she wouldn't plummet to her doom on her first try to get to the top. She smiled in satisfaction as her hands remained sufficiently stuck to allow herself to move upwards.

Naruko still remembered Anko's lecture on the amount of chakra she was supposed to use…

"_Naruko-chan, just think of chakra like it's bubblegum!"_

"_Bubblegum?" A much smaller Naruko questioned doubtfully._

"_Yeah! A small wad won't stick to the wall…" The woman nodded sagely, apparently pleased with herself for coming up with such an _exquisite _metaphor. "…and it won't support your weight. Too much will make you drop like a ton of bricks!"_

The muscles in her arms and shoulders straining to accommodate her weight, the blonde girl lifted herself off of the window-sill. She then placed her sandal-clad feet on the wall.

Heart jumping up to her throat when she slid a few inches down the gritty brick walls, she boosted the amount of chakra slightly and then sighed in relief. 'Oh man, that was close…'

She increased her efforts, and soon she was clambering up the side of the tower, occasionally sliding to the side to avoid a window. Naruko figured she must've looked really stupid, clambering like some hunched over frog, making its way awkwardly to the top of the building.

But after almost half an hour, Naruko halted at the correct window she had been instructed to enter. She paused for a few moments, allowing her breathing to a somewhat more regular pace.

When she had sufficiently recuperated, scrutinizing blue eyes scanned the edges of the window for any visible traps. Finding none, the girl opened it carefully.

With all the grace she possessed, Naruko hopped through the opened window and crouched in the semi-darkness of a long hallway.

Shifting her gaze to the left and then to the right, she tried to see if anyone had noticed her entry. After no-one had burst through any of the wooden doors that lined the hallway, Naruko breathed a sigh of relief.

* * *

"Damn, where is it!"

Whispering furiously to herself, Naruko rummaged through a massive open cabinet that dominated one of the walls of the room where the object she was looking for was located.

Throwing a bundle of scrolls –rather important ones too, if the official seals from various Kage's were any indication- over her shoulder, the girl let out a whoop.

"Found you!"

Buried beneath another few scrolls, was the scroll of forbidden seals, the cherished treasure of Konohagakure. Shakily, Naruko extracted it and balanced it with both hands.

The thing was huge. It easily reached to her chest. And she nearly dropped it as a voice suddenly called out behind her.

"What are you doing here?"

"Aargh!" Jumping to her feet, Naruko turned towards the voice.

It was none other than the Hokage himself, his balding head visible due to the lack of headwear.

There was no other choice. It was time to use the jutsu she had developed in supreme secrecy. Not even Anko knew about it. Hands rapidly formed several seals, and the girl smiled at the old man before she unleashed her technique.

"Oiroke no Jutsu!" (Sexy no Jutsu)

Suddenly, the young girl wasn't quite so young anymore…

Standing a fair bit taller, and in a somewhat enticing posture, was a perfectly nude, older version of Naruko. This time with two thigh-length pigtails, and curvature that some women would kill for. While a dispersing cloud of smoke -that had erupted during the transformation- died down to a few slender tendrils that covered her most personal areas, she shot the man a wink and giggled innocently.

And that was it. Like a dual hose, blood burst forth from the old man's nostrils as he surveyed the sight before him.

Not pausing to smirk in satisfaction at the massive nosebleed she had caused, Naruko dispersed the illusion, and left the old man twitching on the dusty floor as she dashed out of the room to the window she had used to enter the tower in the first place…

* * *

"Let's see, what's the first technique…" Naruko whispered to herself, sitting on the forest-floor and balancing the large scroll on her lap. "What the hell?" She cried out, thoroughly annoyed. "Kage Bunshin! Ah man, that blows…"

It had taken quite some time, but she had finally reached the rendezvous point, she and Mizuki had agreed to. She had been instructed to take the scroll of forbidden jutsu. If she did that, she would pass and become a full-fledged Genin.

'This had better be worth it…'

It was nearly four hours later that anyone found her. But it wasn't Mizuki…

"Na-ru-koooooo…"

There was only one person who could make her name sound so scary aside from her older sister.

Tired and slightly beaten up, the girl looked up from the ground, only to spot her teacher looming dangerously over her hunched over form, murderous intent radiating from his eyes.

"Iruka-sensei! What are _you_ doing here?" She asked, genuinely puzzled.

"BAKA!" Without warning, Iruka had planted his fist on top of Naruko's head. "You've played horribly pranks before, but this is certainly your worst!"

"Ow!" Rubbing her head, the blonde girl stared at her teacher, not understanding at all. "What are you saying, I was told to come here. I've been practising this new technique the whole time!"

'What?' Iruka's glare died down to a confused look and his shoulders slumped slightly. 'Is that why she's so roughed up? Has she really been practising a new technique?'

Upon closer inspection, it was revealed that Naruko indeed looked worse for wear. Her shift and jacket were dirtied and considerably rumpled. Her skin, visible skin anyway, was mottled with cuts and bruises. All were clear indication of continuous exercise in a place like this.

"But…"

"Mizuki-sensei told me to get that scroll, and if I learned this technique and show it to you, I would pass for sure!" Beaming, the girl sent her teacher a thumbs up.

"Mizuki!" Slowly, Iruka was putting one and one together, but not before… "Look out!"

Without warning, he shoved Naruko to the side and was sent flying against a tree as a hail of shuriken and kunai made its way towards them.

"Augh!" Grunting, the academy teacher found himself nailed to the trunk of the tree. His shoulder, right thigh and his clothing impaled by deadly steel.

"Heh, what a shame, I was hoping that would have killed the both of you." A voice, frightingly cold, rang out through the darkness.

A figure jumped out from the crown of a nearby tree and crouched on the ground before lifting itself to its full height. Calmly, the figure made its way towards a bewildered Naruko and Iruka.

"Mizuki…" Iruka growled, ripping out the kunai from his shoulder. "So it was you!"

"Hehe…" Chuckling maliciously, the colleague of the kind-hearted teacher stepped closer. A stray ray of moonlight illuminated his face, twisted into a sneer instead of the normal friendly visage he normally donned.

'Wha… what's going on?' Naruko was trying to figure out what was happening. 'Why are Mizuki-sensei and Iruka-sensei fighting?'

"Naruko! Don't give him the scroll even if you die!" Iruka shouted frantically, ripping out another kunai, this one embedded in his thigh.

"Hey! What's going on!"

Iruka coughed, flecks of blood leaving his mouth. "That is a dangerous scroll! It has forbidden Ninjutsu sealed within it! Mizuki used you, in order to get his hands on it!"

"Naruko-_chan_…" Mizuki interrupted him, sarcastically adding the familiarity to her name. "There's really no point in you having it. I'll tell you the truth…"

"No! Don't!" The scarred Chuunin continued to pull out various kunai and shuriken from the tree trunk, desperately trying to stop his colleague from revealing something that had been kept secret for over twelve years…

Naruko's eyes widened slightly, while she picked herself up from the forest floor. "What are you talking about?"

Smirking, Mizuki stalked ever closer, grabbing one of the large shuriken strapped to his back. "You know about the demon fox being sealed right? Twelve years ago…"

"Huh?"

"Since that incident, a new rule was created for this village…"

"A new rule?" The girl piped up, her curiosity getting the best of her.

"But, Naruko, this rule was never meant to be told to you…"

"Not me? Why not?" She demanded.

Mizuki let out a dark chuckle, while Naruko kept pouring questions. "What kind of rule is it?"

Staring deeply into Naruko's sky-blue eyes, the traitor revealed the secret. "The rule is, that nobody is talk about the fact that _you_ are the demon fox."

"STOP IT!" Iruka roared impotently, struggling against his remaining bonds.

Not letting up, and ignoring the girl's fallen face, Mizuki continued. "Iruka probably hates you, because you're the demon that killed his parents… And now…" He pulled back his arm, like a coiled spring, and with a thunderous roar, the traitor let the large shuriken fly. "…I'm going to kill you, you little _bitch_!"

The four-pointed star ate up the distance quickly as it whizzed through the air, but before it hit, a blood-matted mass forced her to the ground.

Iruka let out a shuddering moan as the weapon pierced his already wounded shoulder. Eyes wide, Naruko watched him in disbelief.

"What are you doing!"

"Run, get back to the village!" Iruka groaned in pain as he reached back and yanked out the large shuriken, blood quickly squirting out of the newly formed gap. "Get help!"

"Why did you…"

Despite their predicament, Iruka still managed to smile at the blonde as he shielded her with his body. "I never hated you, because you have truly become one of my most precious students…" With that, Iruka let out a soft sigh, and slumped over, unconscious.

Lower lip trembling, Naruko balled her hands into fists. "You moron! I knew that!" Her fists uselessly thumped against his chest before they grasped the Chuunin's vest tightly. "But… Thank you…"

Loud laughter interrupted them. "Awww, isn't that so cute. Did he get himself hurt trying to save you, little demon?"

"Shut up…"

Naruko's low growl resounded clearly through the night.

"Or what?" Mizuki responded, unclasping the second, and last, of the oversized shuriken and looping his fingers through the centre hole.

"I'll repay the pain you inflicted on Iruka-sensei a thousand times…"

Extracting herself from under Iruka's dead weight, the girl clutched him carefully and tenderly laid him on the ground. Her blue eyes flashed coldly like chips of ice as she fixed a steely glare on the cocky older man.

Unnerved somewhat by the intensity of her gaze, Mizuki quickly hid it under a vicious sneer. "Big words, for such a small girl…"

Naruko was unfazed by his statement. Liquid fire coursed through her veins, boiling the placid pool of emotions in her heart to a churning mass of fury. Almost unnoticed was the heavy presence in the back of her mind, whispering encouragements…

He had hurt someone she held dear…

He had to suffer…

With great difficulty, she contained that rage, that burning emotion…

Ever so carefully she balled it up, wanting to save it for later use. If she was going to have to win this fight, she could not allow herself to become a loose cannon.

Naruko raised her hands in front of her, her fingers resting in an unfamiliar seal; a simple cross with both index- and middle finger…

But the power that lay behind such a simple seal would astound even her, and everyone who would dare underestimate her in the future…

"KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" She bellowed, yet purposely holding back on the amount of energy she poured into the technique.

Immediately a multitude of explosions and small pops burst forth from all around her. Hazy clouds of smoke surrounded tangible mass, slowly drifting away…

If Iruka had been hoping for reinforcements, he would have never predicted this.

Where once Naruko stood alone, next to an unconscious Iruka, were now five.

'How is this possible!' Mizuki questioned in his mind. 'She never managed the normal Bunshin no Jutsu!'

Apparently his confusion was apparent on his face as the Naruko -who stood in the middle, surrounded by four copies of herself- spoke up. "I've been practising hard, Mizuki-_sensei_…"

Silence stretched for a few seconds, until yet again, the silver-haired man let the last of his large weapons fly.

Naruko had expected this though.

Without words, the girl gave her clones an instruction to get Iruka to safety. The four copies obeyed her without question and each grabbed one of his limbs. While they did this, Naruko quickly grabbed the other throwing-star from the ground, holding it in front of her protectively.

An annoying whiz and a loud clang later, the thrown shuriken bounced off of the other, spinning drunkenly through the air a few seconds before falling uselessly on the forest floor.

The sheer force of the blow forced the blonde girl to stagger back and drop the weapon.

Not one to wait patiently while his opponent recovered, Mizuki let out a war cry and charged.

As he reached her, Naruko dodged the first hit, a fist aimed for her head, by ducking swiftly. But it didn't wave her from the second. An outstretched leg caught her squarely in the stomach and sent her flying.

"Aaargh!"

_Meanwhile…_

"Hey, is this a good spot?"

"Yeah, let's just drop him here."

With a heavy thud, Umino Iruka was dropped on the ground, some distance away of the brawl that had broken out between Naruko and Mizuki.

"Hey, don't drop him like that!"

"Yeah, you could break his neck or something!"

"Shut up!" With a forceful shout, one of the four clones had prevented what could have become an all-out catfight. "We need to get back!"

Grinning foxily, another one of the copies spoke up and rubbed her hands gleefully. "Let's get that bastard!"

The clone that had defused a possibly volatile situation motion for the other three clones to come closer. "Okay, this is what we do…"

* * *

Naruko was getting seriously tired. Her back still aching from the impact with that tree, and her legs and arms sore from blocking whatever punches and kicks she could, she was doubting she could keep this up for much longer.

Currently, she was huddled behind a reasonably sized tree trunk, waiting for yet another deadly barrage of sharpened metal to stop.

"Damn! Where do you get them all, do you pull them out of your ass!" Naruko shouted, attempting -in her own way- to stall for more time to recover.

"Shut up you damn brat!" Came the furious reply.

Lesson one in direct combat, Anko style: Annoy your opponents so they will get angry enough to make mistakes. Well that, and it is just really fun to do.

"Don't call me a brat, you pretty-boy pansy!" The girl shot right back, then smirked as she heard his enraged growl.

"I'm going to cut out your intestines and strangle you with them, little girl!"

"Hah, I'd like to see a wuss like you try!"

"Stop hiding and I will!" Mizuki taunted, then suddenly, sounded quite surprised… "Hey, what the hell are you doing! Let me go!"

Loud exclamations of victory followed.

"Take that!" One voice exclaimed.

"And that!" Another voice hollered, accompanied by the unmistakable sound of a mouth biting down of something.

Naruko got up from her hiding place and met an unbelievable sight.

Four exact copies of the exuberant girl clamped down on his limbs, effectively pinning him to one place.

Mizuki looked fearfully at the original girl, wondering what she might do with him. If her past pranks were any indication, he was in a deep pile of…

"Shit, let me go you useless demon-spawn!" He struggled fruitlessly against his _bonds_, only serving to shake his captors wildly.

"Hurry up boss-lady!" The clone that held down his left leg yelled loudly.

"You know what to do!" The other on his right leg added. The other two muffled their support, their mouths filled with Mizuki's wrists.

Hesitating only for a split-second, Naruko quickly grinned impossibly wide at the man's struggling and ran towards him, arm pulling back like a cannon waiting to fire. "I already knew about Kyuubi!" She roared as the distance between the two was eaten up quickly by her amazing speed. "Nee-chan would never keep a secret from me!"

At the last minute, she jumped forwards, her leg jerked back…

…and she kicked him right in the family jewels…

Some distance away, a certain scarred Chuunin awoke just in time to witness the spectacle…

Iruka sucked in his breath as his eyes widened considerably.

The sight of Naruko taking her revenge on Mizuki was so ludicrous and utterly bizarre, he didn't know whether to laugh or to cringe in pity for his treacherous colleague.

Of all the things the small girl could have done…

This was certainly the epitome of her mean streak as far as he was concerned.

Still, it wasn't as if he could blame her. After all, the bastard had hurt him pretty bad.

"I wish I was the one who did that…"

His eyes widened once more as those words left his bloodied lips. He had _never_ felt that way before… Maybe Naruko and her rather… _fetching_ sister were rubbing off on him…

Now there was a scary thought…

Wiping his mouth with the back of his hands, he refocused on Mizuki again, just as the pain finally reached his brain.

"Ohhh…" The Chuunin moaned pitifully, his hands clutching his groin after the clones disappeared in a cloud of smoke –their duties performed to satisfaction- while his eyes rolled up into his head.

"Haha! Take that, you bastard!" Towering victoriously, and showing absolutely no mercy, was Mitarashi Naruko. She pointed at the man, a definite sign of warning. "Don't mess with me or Iruka-sensei again, I'll hurt you even more!"

Hearing this, Iruka shook his head slowly, a lopsided smile tugging at his lips. He wasn't sure if she was able to make Mizuki suffer more than she already had.

Almost as if on cue, a peel of exuberant laughter followed the girl's bold statement. Necks craning to focus on the source of the commotion, and ignoring Mizuki who had dropped on his knees and slumped forwards until his face hit the dirt by this time with a small trail of drool escaping the corner of his mouth, teacher and student tried to find out who was obviously spying on them.

* * *

"I can't believe you kicked him _there_!" Anko laughed, slapping her knee as she doubled over.

Folding her arms in front of her chest, Naruko nodded smugly. "He had it coming!"

"Hah! He sure did!" By now, the older woman was wiping away tears of mirth from the corners of her eyes as she surveyed the traitor lying on the ground, twitching every now and again.

If he knew what was good for him, he would surely not try and move while she was present.

"Anko-san, Naruko…" Iruka called out hesitantly,applying the last bandages of the emergency medical kit, Anko had brought with her and given to him after she had revealed herself to the two.

She had been watching the whole ordeal, and even though Iruka was slightly upset of her not intervening in any way whatsoever, he could still understand her need to see what her adopted younger sister was made of.

As he closed the lid of the small box that had contained several rolls of bandages and stood up, he focused on the girl and woman standing near him. "I think we should head back and report on the situation."

Exchanging knowing glances, Anko and Naruko nodded to one another.

"Oi! Iruka-sensei!" She shouted, moving closer towards him.

"Yes?" He replied, somewhat hesitantly.

"Buy us ramen!"

"R-ramen?" Iruka stuttered. 'She wants ramen? At a time like this?'

Anko glowered at the child before grinning wickedly at the cornered teacher. "You'll buy some dango for me, won't you? Iruka-kun?"

The slightly seductive whisper of the Jounin was lost in a startled yelp however, when Naruko jumped on her back from behind.

"Ramen!" She proclaimed imperiously.

"No way!" Anko shouted back, swiping the girl from her back before placing her in a simple, yet supremely effective, headlock. "He's going to buy dango!"

"Er…" Iruka could only stand silently, stupefied at the display of the two ferocious females before him, defending their respective favourite foods.

"Ramen, ramen, ramen, RAM-hurk!" Naruko choked, her jaws effectively stopped snapping futilely as she tried to bite Anko's arm in a desperate effort to alleviate the pressure. "

Anko turned to Iruka, a smug look on her face as she continued to exert a fierce grip on her little sister's neck. "Dango! Right, Iruka-kun?"

"Uhm, Anko-san…" The kind-hearted Chuunin pointed at Naruko's face feebly, which rapidly became more and more purple by the second.

"Hmm?" The woman responded sweetly, apparently unaffected by the little girl's struggling –though said girl's struggling was quickly dieing down.

"I think she can't breathe…"

"Oh." Anko dead-panned, and dropped her like a sack of potatoes.

Though instead of muttering curses of any kind, Naruko giggled…

Iruka gulped. When Naruko giggled, it was rarely about a good thing. And how the girl was able to make such a sweet and simple expression of joy sound ever so menacing, he would never know.

As she picked herself from the ground and motioned for Anko to lean down to whisper something in her ear, he muttered silent prayers to his ancestors. Especially when he saw the two females looking slyly at him, a feral grin mirrored by the wicked gleam in their eyes.

"Iruka-kun…" Anko purred, making her way over to him, swaying her hips just the right amount and pushing out her chest for added effect.

Already, Iruka could feel his defences crumbling, as it took every effort on his part to not stare at the sensual woman's chest, or other curvatures for that matter…

"Iruka-kun…" Anko repeated. "Why don't you buy ramen _and_ dango for us?"

The faint feeling of something dribbling down his upper lip went unnoticed by Iruka. In fact, a battle of sorts was taking place inside of him. On the one hand, the logical part of his mind was begging and screaming for him to run away now, as it already sensed the impending doom of the content of his wallet. The passionate side however, betrayed its mental sibling and sided with the rumbling and rapid thumping of his heart, clamouring for him to accept her… _gracious offer_…

"S-sure…" Was the eventual croak, followed immediately by a mental whoop.

Anko grinned broadly and shot Naruko a wink over her shoulder. "Mission success!" She mouthed, then focused her attention on Iruka again. She grabbed his right arm and spun him around in the direction of her favourite dango establishment. Naruko followed suit, though pausing only for a minute to kick Mizuki once more for good measure.

Moments later, several figures jumped from the crowns of the trees surrounding the small clearing. All of them wore dark cloaks, specifically designed to hide their body. Though the thing that stood out, were the different masks each of them wore, depicting an animal of some kind.

One of them, large, burly and obviously male, despite being hidden by a mask and cloak, spoke up in a rumbling voice. "Poor bastard…"

Another, with a mask shaped like the face of a hawk, knelt next to the barely conscious teacher, who was still clutching his manhood as if his life depended on it. "He is a traitor, he will suffer a worse fate than this."

"Enough!" A third member interjected, pushing past the fourth who stood impassively a few feet away from Mizuki. "Our mission was to bring him back and the scroll. We already went past the mission boundaries by letting that Mitarashi kid taking care of him." The figure removed its mask, revealing a startlingly beautiful woman, and grabbed the front of Mizuki's vest, hoisting him up slightly.

Despite the pain he was in and his bare consciousness, Mizuki felt terror welling from deep inside of him as the woman's lavender orbs peered coldly into his own. "I think Morino Ibiki-san will want to have a word with you, traitor."

* * *

Naruko snuck through the darkness of her house. It was still very early, maybe five in the morning, she wasn't sure. Carefully she made her way through the hallway, stepping over the mess that littered the floor.

The events of the previous evening were still clear in her mind. After possibly turning Mizuki impotent, they had unwound by mooching off of her teacher.

Though these two things were undoubtedly good for Naruko, she still remained saddened. She went through all the trouble of stealing the top-secret scroll, incapacitated the Hokage himself –though she didn't really think that old man was much of a Shinobi to begin with- and taught herself a forbidden Ninjutsu; Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.

On top of all that, she beat a Chuunin. But then again, Naruko really didn't know how Mizuki was ever able to become one. 'He was such a wimp!' She thought disbelievingly.

Closer and closer she crept towards the door of her older sister. She was being childish, she knew that, and there was a good chance that she would be yelled at. But still…

As silently as she could, she opened the door, with its distinctive dumpling-shaped nameplate, and stepped inside.

Like the rest of the house, Anko's room was no exception to the unwritten rule about the requisitioned border between messiness and near-tidiness. Both of them enjoyed the cozy feel of a slightly chaotic household, and keeping everything neat in order just wouldn't do.

Just like them…

After a brief glance about the room, Naruko spotted her target; a large bed –Anko wouldn't make do with a one-person bed, she insisted on having enough room- and its single occupant slumbering peacefully.

With her features straining in concentration, the girl tiptoed over to the edge of the bed and slid underneath the blanket.

'If pinky or matchstick would find out about this, I'd never live this down.' Naruko grumbled, and crawled over the thick and bouncy mattress. After a few moments of navigating in the darkness underneath the blanket, she noticed a familiar warmth and settled comfortably herself next to it.

"Naruko-chan?"

'Damn.' The twelve-year old winced as she heard the sleepy murmuring above her. She could've expected it though, Anko was a Jounin after all, a special Jounin at that…

"Yeah…" She sighed and poked her head from under the covers.

Anko, still somewhat asleep, smacked her lips and tilted her head slightly downwards, eyes still closed. "What's wrong?" She muttered sleepily.

"Nothing, I guess…"

"Mhmm…" It was painfully obvious that the older woman didn't believe her, but she let it slide. "C'mere…" She yawned and wrapped an arm around Naruko's shoulders.

A little surprised, but happy nonetheless, the girl scooted closer to her sister and closed her eyes. She would deal with the consequences of the previous evening a little bit later…

* * *

_Dear Imoto-chan,_

_I had to leave a little early, another one of those crappy meetings. (They are so boring, I think I'll burn off Iwashi's goatee just to liven things up again. He finally got one again after I burned off his last one too.)_

_I'll be back late in the afternoon, evening if Ebisu-baka gets the chance to do one of his stupid long lectures again. There's some food in the fridge, make yourself some, okay?_

_When I get back though, we'll have to have a little talk._

_Cya!_

_Anko._

_PS: Touch my dango again, and your head is mine!_

Naruko let out a shuddering sigh, slumping over slightly from her seating position, with a thick blanket covering her outstretched legs. She had reread this note four times already. It was a good thing that there was no mention of the fact that she had technically stolen one of the village's most prized possessions. And she wasn't carted off towards the prison after her fight with Mizuki.

But the girl dreaded the _talk_ she was going to have with her older sister.

What was she going to say? That she failed the exam for the fourth time in a row? That once again, Mitarashi Naruko, prankster extraordinaire, had failed her academic responsibilities abysmally?

She had felt so uncharacteristically depressed, that she hadn't even left the bed yet. And –she glanced at the bedside alarm clock- it was already half past two…

_Get a hold of yourself, useless girl…_

'Yeah, that's right…' Naruko agreed with that small voice in the back of her head. 'I am useless…'

_Stop feeling sorry for yourself…_

'I'm not feeling sorry for myself!' Hands balled up into fists and blue eyes narrowed as she became angry and quite defensive all of a sudden.

_You're weak…_

'I'm not!'

_Prove it…_

Now that left Naruko without any response. She _wanted_ to prove that voice wrong. She wasn't weak anymore, she had beaten up a Chuunin after all. That certainly had to count for something.

Snorting, the girl threw back the blanket and jumped from Anko's large bed. "I'm not weak!" She said aloud and stormed out of her sister's room.

* * *

"Oi! Naruko-chan!" Anko's voice drifted through their house, but elicited no response.

Slightly disgruntled, the dark-haired woman searched the house, opening every single door, only to be greeted by empty rooms, devoid of Naruko's presence.

"Where are you?" She tried again, closing the door to the girl's bedroom and walking down the hall. She moved towards the living room, her sandaled feet sliding lazily of the tatami-mats. "Where _is_ she?" She repeated, more for her own benefit than anyone else.

Only then did she notice the faint sounds coming from outside, in what some could consider the front yard. Their house was situated in the forest, which made their yard rather large…

'Maybe I should consider going through the front door sometime…' Anko pondered this and got steadily closer to the source of the sounds. Expertly weaving through the cluttered furniture of their living room, then reaching the small hallway that led to the front door, she stopped to listen.

Someone was shouting? And… was that the clatter of metal hitting metal?

A smile appeared on the Jounin's face as she scanned the tree line. Darting through the leaf-cluttered crowns and stout branches littered with knotholes was a blonde figure.

No… Make that two figures… And one of those figures was definitely throwing a deadly hail of shuriken and kunai at the other.

Meanwhile, as Anko observed the _fight_, if you could call it that, Naruko was having the time of her life. That is, until a kunai grazed her cheek for the umpteenth time.

"Hey! Watch it!" She shouted towards a perfect replica of herself.

Apparently, the bunshin she was able to produce were dispelled with a single hit. Therefore, she decided on this little game. She had created only one corporeal clone –after many tries since her chakra control was still nowhere near perfect- and instructed it to chase her and try to stop her.

"Hey, it's not _my _fault that my aim is so crappy!" The clone shot back, scowling.

Naruko had to grit her teeth to ignore the obvious insult towards her abilities. Aside from taking on the appearance of herself, the girl's attitude also seemed to be copied.

"Yeah whatever, let's go."

The clone smirked and let loose another barrage. A poof of smoke later and every single of the kunai and shuriken clattered uselessly on the tree-branch before dropping down to the ground below.

"Your ever beautiful and super-cute sister is here! Hah!"

The clone gaped stupidly and the real Naruko felt a veritable question mark appear over her head. "Nee-chan, what are you doing?"

"What, I'm not allowed to join in the fun?" Anko asked, raising a single eyebrow.

"Eh?" That was all the girl was able to utter before jumping to the side, avoiding the Jounin's fist which had been aimed for where her head had been a moment ago.

"Come on, let's spar for a bit!"

"Ack!" Attention shattered, the single clone disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

There was one unwritten rule when in a fight with Anko. At least for Naruko there was. Dodge like your life depends on it, because most of the time, it really is. Anko tended to go a little overboard when fighting, and more often than not, Naruko had been limping to the academy the next day because of it.

Smirking, her older sister gave her a bit of advice. "Come on now, don't hold back, I'll hurt you for real."

'Urgh, she's serious…' Naruko thought, barely deflecting a punch with the flat of her hands… and was then kneed in the gut which sent her in a wild freefall.

With a mighty grunt, the girl crashed in the mossy forest floor. She did not have time to consider her impact though, for immediately the same knee that had sent her flying came at her once more.

She rolled to the side quickly, and flipped on her feet, narrowly dodging the knee and the sweeping kick that followed.

"Don't just dodge, attack me." Anko told her calmly, not sounded the least bit strained. "I thought you learned some fancy new jutsu?"

As a response, Naruko growled and back flipped out of the way of another punch that would have crushed her nose like an overripe grape.

Anko didn't let up though and merely continued a stream of punches and kicks that would have made any normal person dizzy. When Naruko blocked a palm strike which was aimed at her sternum, the sheer force of the blow sent her skidding backwards.

After she stopped some good fifteen feet away, she finally had enough space to us her new move. Her hands slipped into the middle-index cross seal. "Watch this!" She roared and gathered her chakra. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Immediately ten clones appeared all around her; each and every one of them sporting the same lop-sided smirk that framed her face.

"There we go!" Anko shouted her approval and dashed forwards, her long trench coat flapping behind her.

The clones tried to get away, but half of them disappeared as quickly as they had come in a hail of rapid jabs due to Anko's own tremendous speed.

Naruko had expected this however, and sent the rest after her older sister while she prepared another Jutsu. She was counting on Anko to at least play with the rest of the clones for a bit.

Watching the clones and Anko's skirmish out of the corner of her eyes, she distanced herself from them slightly. Hurriedly, she went through the series of seals required for the particular technique. As her fingers settled in the o-hitsuji (ram) hand-seal, she roared the name.

"Doton: Yamakuzure no Jutsu! (Earth element: Landslide technique)"

The earth seemed to move to those words and a moment later, a wave of mud speckled with bits of moss appeared to engulf her target.

The two clones not destroyed by Anko at this time continued fighting in an effort to keep the Jounin rooted to the spot. But they were quickly hidden from view as the wave washed over them.

Hearing the faint pops of the bunshins disappearing, Naruko let out a deep breath she didn't know she had been holding.

The feeling of cool metal against the back of her neck quickly shattered that faint glimmer of relief…

"Eep!"

"You really thought I was going to be trapped that easily?" A voice said behind her, and ruffled her hair.

"Nee-chan!" She whined grumpily and immediately moved to straighten her spikes, for as far as she was able to anyway.

Rich and rolling laughter followed and the pressure of the sharp edge on her neck disappeared.

"I was good though, wasn't I?" Naruko asked hopefully.

"Eh, I guess so…" Anko put the kunai she had been holding back in its holster and folded her arms in front of her chest.

Pouting, Naruko turned on her heels and glared at her as best as she could. "Hmmph!"

"Aw, did Anko step on your widdle ego?" The dark-haired woman truly enjoyed pushing Naruko's buttons, and mocking the kid in a childish tone was one of her favourite ways.

The girl stomped towards her. "Grrr…"

"Hehe…" Turning away from Naruko, the dark-haired woman moved to one of the many trees and plunked down in front of it, patting the ground beside her with a free hand. "C'mere, we need to talk, remember?"

All mock-anger forgotten, the girl gulped. 'Damn, I was hoping she would forget…' Hesitantly, Naruko obeyed, and sat beside her sister.

Anko raised a single eyebrow at her odd behaviour, and it threatened to disappear into her hairline completely when the girl lifted her knees to her chest and hugged them tightly with her arms. "Oi, what are you being so depressed about. You kicked that pansy's ass, didn't you?" She asked her bluntly.

After a moment's pause, Naruko responded, her eyes drifting downwards. "Yeah, I guess… But…"

When nothing else seemed forthcoming, Anko prodded her in her side. "But what?"

"I failed the exam again…" Came the quiet reply and Naruko's face disappeared between her knees.

"Oooooh… _that_…"

The even response made her look up again, and saw her older sister grinning like the maniac she was.

"I'm guessing you don't deserve this then, huh?" She said, waving a rectangular box around.

Naruko's eyes grew wide like dinner plates. "Is that for me?"

"Hole in one, short stuff." Anko affirmed and patted the girl's head before giving it to her.

This certainly didn't happen often. It wasn't Anko's style to give something to her after she had failed anything. Instead she'd just say that she would have to try harder next time.

Surprise and elatedness quickly turned into suspicion. Scrutinizing the object in her hands, and giving the woman next to her a sideways glance, she carefully shook the box.

Gifts after failing were far and few between, but pranks weren't…

As far as she could feel, Naruko didn't sense any tension on the packaging that might give away a spring-loaded or tightly wound trap. She sniffed the box. Nope, no odd scents either.

"I didn't do anything with it…" Anko murmured, feigning insult. "Honest!" She added after Naruko's disbelieving stare directed her way.

"Hmmm…" Still not trusting her sister completely, the girl opened the lid of box ever so carefully…

…Then dropped it as she saw the faint glimmer of metal…

Of all the things… Naruko knew she had done something bad, but to stick what could be an assortment of deadly weaponry inside that harmless looking box?

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Anko picked up the box, ripped out its contents and thrust it into Naruko's hands. "Jeez, you dolt, it's not like I was planning to kill you!"

But all that was lost on the girl however, as she saw what it was exactly. Her mouth opened and closed on its own accord as she tried to formulate proper words.

"You like it?" Anko grinned and nudged her with her elbow, nearly sending the girl sprawling to the ground.

"I… I… H-how?"

"I had a talk with Iruka-kun." Wrapping an arm around her shoulder, Anko explained. "He didn't any convincing. We both figured that Kage Bunshin could be counted as a normal Bunshin for your exam results."

Trembling, Naruko held up what was revealed as a plate of metal fastened to a pale-grey length of cloth. But on the metal was engraved the symbol of the village she loved so much.

Konoha's swirling Leaf.

"I put the plate on some new cloth, I hope you don't mind."

Naruko shook her head fiercely. "No…"

Anko wanted to tell her more. About what had happened during the meeting, and about the changes that were soon to come. But as the girl suddenly latched onto her, sobbing her gratitude in the crook of her neck, she decided it could wait until later.

Moving her hand to stroke Naruko's spiky golden hair fondly, Anko whispered her congratulations. "You did very well, Naru-chan…"

* * *

Just like Mitarashi Naruko the evening before, Hyuuga Hinata was in tears, though for a whole other reason.

Worried about the sudden disappearance of her friend, she had asked several people about where the blonde girl had gone. To her surprise, all of the people she asked grinned at her and told her Naruko had failed.

Yet again.

That had brought tears to Hinata's eyes, for the Hyuuga heiress had one major failing…

Her self-esteem…

While most of the members of the Hyuuga clan strutted around Konohagakure like they were Hokage themselves, Hinata did not. Something that her father did not shy away from to point out.

Case in point; a recent spar with her younger sister, which she lost. Rather horrendously so. The burning glare her father had sent her made her cringe every time she thought about it. Hinata's younger sister; Hanabi, did not glare at her, instead, she just couldn't figure out why her older sister was so weak. Which she asked about rather bluntly, too.

Sighing, the blue-haired girl tried to disappear inside her oversized coat as she made her way around a sharp bend towards the academy. There was nothing she wanted more than to be able to disappear without a trace.

A hyperactive, bubbling mass of exuberant energy quickly squashed that idea though.

"HINATAAAAAA!"

Jumping up and down, trying her best to defy gravity, none other than Naruko was flapping her arms madly in a desperate attempt to catch the shy girl's attention.

"N-naruko-chan…" Hinata whispered in surprise, barely catching herself as she nearly stumbled.

"OI! HINATAAAAAA! GET OVER HERE!"

A crimson flush made its way to her pale cheeks. The crowd that had already gathered in front of the entrance of the academy had literally covered their ears in attempt to avoid going deaf. One, a baby no more than one year old, even began bawling while its mother tried to cover her ears and comfort her child at the same time.

Naruko sure could be loud when she wanted to be…

Wanting to avoid any further embarrassment, Hinata hurried towards the over-energized blonde.

"Heh, you sure took your sweet time, didn't you?" Was the greeting that awaited her.

Aquamarine eyes trailed upwards and took in a dazzling grin, then went down again, just a tiny bit.

Gasping, Hinata pointed shakily towards a genuine Konoha hitai-ate tied loosely around Naruko's neck. "Y-you passed?"

Pouting, Naruko nodded. "What, you thought I couldn't make it?"

"N-no!" Biting her lip, the other girl tried to extract herself out of the hole she had dug for herself. "I-I asked s-several people yesterday a-and… they told me you f-failed the e-exam…" The last part trailed off in a near inaudible whisper and Naruko had to strain herself to hear it.

Thumping herself on her chest, the blonde girl grinned broadly once more. "Hah, like I'm going to be stopped by a simple exam!"

A brief glance revealed to her that the crowd had already dispersed, be it parents dropping off their children or the children going inside to their respective classrooms, and she threw an arm around Hinata's shoulders.

"C'mon, we'd better be going, I don't want to be late for the assigning of the teams! And wait till I tell you about this new technique I learned. It's awesome!"

* * *

"Team seven; Uchiha Sasuke…"

"…"

"…Haruno Sakura…"

"HELL YEAH! TAKE THAT, INO-PIG!"

"…and Inuzuka Kiba."

"Nooooo!"

A series of whining barks followed that last… _complaint_…

Standing upright, pointing a somewhat clawed finger at whom Naruko sometimes affectionately called; emo-retarded nitwit, was Inuzuka Kiba, glaring with his catlike eyes. "Why the hell am I being forced on a team with that Uchiha bastard and his pink slave girl!"

Coughing politely, Iruka gave the fanged boy a smile. "The purpose of today is to arrange balanced teams. Sasuke and Sakura were at the top of the class in academic results, while you on the other hand, were almost at the bottom as far as results go…"

Blushing in embarrassment, Kiba couldn't think of anything to say to dispute that comment -not that he could either way- and sat back down on his bench. Akamaru, hidden in the folds of his fur-lined, dark-grey jacket, gave his master a comforting lick on the chin and whined pitifully.

"Now then." The scarred Chuunin continued. "Team eight; Aburame Shino, Yamanaka Ino and Akimichi Chouji."

The response of these new team-members was rather mixed. There was Aburame Shino, stoic as always, who didn't say a word, content with only nodding at his fellows. Ino was still in a heated glaring match that had started after Sakura's energetic proclamation of her victory over her blonde rival. The last member sent a friendly wave directed at Shino, all the while stuffing his face with an impossible amount of snacks he produced from seemingly out of nowhere. Chouji did however, throw worried glances every so often at a dark-haired boy seated next to him. But judging from the boy's casual demeanour, he either didn't seem to care, or was fast asleep.

It was hard to tell which of the two was the case.

A few benches in front, someone else was having a similar problem. Seated next to Hinata was a listless Naruko. Her excitement had long died down since their teacher had begun his lecture. Even faking to pay attention to Iruka wasn't working. Instead of her eyes glazing over like they normally did during long lectures, her eyelids inched downwards until finally they had closed and a gentle snore drifted through the crowded classroom.

Hinata did her best not to giggle. Only when her name was called out, did she snap out of it.

"Team ten; Hyuuga Hinata, Nara Shikamaru and…" There was a lengthy pause here, and any murmuring died down to hushed whispers as the children saw their teacher's intent gaze focused on one spot. "…Mitarashi Naruko."

"Zzzhuh, wha?" Chin slipping of her palm, Naruko had jerked awake. Completely clueless, she stared at Iruka. Before she had the chance to ask any questions though, she felt a tug on the sleeve of her jacket.

All shyness forgotten, Hinata practically beamed at her friend. But as she was about to open her mouth to inform her of what she had undoubtedly missed, a certain someone made his presence known rather vocally.

"Sensei, you _can't _be serious!" Shikamaru shouted in indignation, his lazy attitude completely forgotten. "You can't put me with those two… those two _girls_!"

Iruka barely held back a smile. "I'm sorry, Shikamaru. But that's just the way it is. Now you and your team-mates wait here. Your Jounin instructor will be here shortly."

Naruko gave the boy a blank look, before directing her attention elsewhere. "Well I guess he's not too bad. At least he's not one of those dumbass bishi's…" Naruko jerked her thumb in his general direction, all the while staring pointedly at a certain raven-haired Uchiha.

'Did she…' Shikamaru stared at her disbelievingly. '…just call me ugly?'

"Everyone, you are allowed to take a fifteen minute break. After that, please wait in the classroom until your assigned Jounin instructor comes to fetch you, and your team-mates." Iruka straightened a pile of papers on his desk, and smiled at the arrayed assortment of fledgling Shinobi fondly. "It was an honour to be your teacher, make me proud."

* * *

"Man, I can't believe I'm not going to see Iruka-sensei anymore…" Naruko whined as she shovelled the last remnants of another cup of instant-ramen into her mouth.

Scoffing, Shikamaru dragged himself up to his feet, and chose not to reply.

"Uhm…" Hinata poked her index-fingers together nervously. "I'm sure you'll see him again, Naruko-chan…"

The brand-new team ten had decided to take their lunches outside to enjoy them under the cheery sun and a clear blue sky. Though Shikamaru was still opposed to having two girls on his team, he knew there was no use complaining.

Little did he know that things were about to become a lot worse…

* * *

**A/N:**

**Imoto: Younger sister.**

**Doton: Yamakuzure no Jutsu (Earth element: Landslide technique):** Ever seen a landslide? It sweeps away just about anything. Think of it like a rolling wave of rock infested, muddy water. Naruko isn't very powerful yet, so her ability is limited to a wave of about three meters high that won't reach very far.

So here is the unedited version. I hope you enjoyed it all the same. As some of you, slightly more fanatic, Naruto fans might have noticed. I'm altering the sequence of events. I won't incorporate everything from the original storyline into this story. I'm doing that because it has to be original in some way, and just reciting everything you can already read yourself isn't much fun, now is it?

I'm going to give you a few hints already, I think I already made it painfully clear who the Jounin Instructor is going to be. There's not going to be a bell-test, and there's probably not going to be a mission that deals with Haku and Zabuza. I'm not sure about that though, since Haku is really an awesome character, but I think it'd be for the best.

I gave the clones a bit more intelligence. I thought it would be a fun idea. And useful to boot! And I'm feeling a slight pang of pity for that traitor, aren't you?

Well, enough of my rambling, on to the review response. (I love you guys)

**Thrice Crossed Fool:** Thanks for the review man, I appreciate it. I hope we'll get to read more ADA soon.

**Dragon Man 180:** No, she doesn't know about Orochimaru just yet. That'll all come to pass during the Chuunin Exams, just like in the original storyline. As for your last question, that should've been revealed in this chapter. Thanks for the review, as always.

**Chedving:** Thanks for your kind words. And no, of course I won't get angry. Well… I won't unless you copy something literally without asking me first… Hehe, anyway, I enjoyed what you wrote so far. Keep up the good work! If you want to discuss some ideas or something, you can send me an email or something. Or maybe your ICQ number if you have it.

**Seravy:** Thanks, I always enjoy your reviews. The (anti?)Sasuke bits in this chapterare dedicated to you.

**Yondaime-samaKazaraYume:** Writer's block sucks ass. But hey, thanks for taking the time to review.

**bill:** I disagree with you there, buddy. Naruko is no genius, and has her faults. She did train with Anko, obviously, but I still think she would have failed. I don't want to make her overpowered, and having Anko teach her Kage Bunshin from the get-go would defeat that goal. But everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I hope you'll enjoy this story all the same.

**BeautifulStruggle:** Thank you! Reviews like yours make me feel all warm and tingly inside. (In a good way! Not a perverted way!) ;)

**Raidin:** Thanks again for pointing out those errors. I haven't gone back and changed it yet, but I will. And don't worry about it, if you find any errors here again, be sure to let me know!

**FenrisLupus:** Yeah, yeah, here ya have it. Now where's your new chapter, eh?

**Kitsune-Itai:** Hehehe, thanks, I appreciate it.

**Cobra-100:** Aye, I noticed the mistake. I'm sorry if I gave anyone the wrong impression. Thanks for pointing it out, I don't plan on writing a lemon or something just yet.

**hmm:** Uh, thanks, hehe. But he was right though, yuri usually entails sex of some kind. There are more shoujo-ai (girl-love) fics out there. Like one from Blood-Shinobi. He's always clamouring for more reviews, so go give it a try.

(yeah, you are, blood-shinobi, and you know it :P)

**Puppet in the Corner:** Anko rules, no doubt about it. Thanks for the review!

**Skuld's Sentaro3:** Thanks, I'm not sure when I'm going to update DYHM though. I've got more ideas for AD at the moment…

**Kittfox:** I was writing, it just took a long time. Sorry about that. And don't you worry, I'm still plenty motivated to keep writing!

**Tales of Pwnage:** Sure, I'll take a look at your story. You'll need to publish it though… Let me know when you have. ;)

**Shibbles:** I'm sorry if you're disappointed about the shoujo-ai, but I've got my own reasons for writing it. I hope you'll enjoy the story nonetheless!

**Song Min Dao, shina-lim, EfrainMan, Mark Larson, Frank Moore, silverbluenchantress, Tsukamaru,** thank you all for the reviews, whether they be encouragements or pleas for me to hurry up with writing. Believe it or not, it actually works!

Leave me a review with your thoughts about this fic so far, so I'll know what you all think.

* * *

**Preview for the next chapter:**

Shikamaru eyed the twirling kunai nervously. "She… She's not serious, is she?"

Shaking her head, the blonde girl gave him a mournful look. "She is…"

Hinata just stammered, her fingers poking against one another as usual. "M-maybe you s-should run, Shikamaru-kun…"

At that moment, the boy couldn't help but agree with Hinata's suggestion.

* * *

Finally; a shoutout for a fic similar to mine and one of an author I really admire. (remove the stripes from the links)

Crazy Bonds from Chedving

Once there was a hidden village. It was peaceful and nothing could've disturbed it...until a single event changed it drastically. The question is - for better or for worse?

-http-www-fanfiction-net/s/2219-061/1/

Give it a go, it's really entertaining.

A Deamon's Artifact from Thrice Crossed Fool

A Tyrant of the netherworld, a ninetails dealing with reaccuring nightmares of a tragedy to come and her container; an Ex-Anbu sent back to take the Jounin exam, What the hell is going on?

-http-www-fanfiction-net/s/2246-402/1/

A beautiful symphony of words I can never hope to match. Possibly the best written fanfic in Naruto fan-dom. And, as a large bonus, it features something along the lines of BitchKyuubi based on the art of croaky; a great artist on deviantart. I love it, er… her! "Hint, hint."


	4. Knowing Me, Knowing You

**Altered Destiny: **

Title subject to change, rating PG13 to be on the safe side.

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, I do own the plot of this story (for as far as there is one) and the extra characters I may or may not add._

_Response to reviews at the bottom, be sure to read the A/N's._

**Chapter 04 – Knowing Me, Knowing You:**

_The brand-new team ten had decided to take their lunches outside to enjoy them under the cheery sun and the serenelyclean blue sky. The day was peaceful, and they took their time to enjoy it; eating slowly as they watched the fluffy white clouds amble on overhead._

_Though Shikamaru was still opposed to having two girls on his team, he knew there was no use complaining. Hinata didn't bother him because she hardly ever spoke. But Naruko__¼__ she could prove troublesome in the future__¼_

_Little did he know that things were about to become a lot worse__¼_

* * *

**_Several hours before Iruka's speech..._**

Mitarashi Anko was currently at home. She had already waved off her younger sister, whom had become quite annoying with her bubbling excitement, going so far as to even run leave home early to meet up with her new sensei. It was decidedly un-Naruko.

Anko would have all the time in the world to have a nice relaxing day though, seeing there were no scheduled missions to perform for a good while.

She lounged against the comfortable leather of a nearly desiccated armchair, stretching as though she were a feline, and released a lazy yawn and smacked her lips loudly¼ The leather felt _really_ good against her net-clothed back. Yep… A nice, year-long nap sounded good right about now¼

...Too bad a polite knock at her front door brought any budding ideas of sleep and dream-molesting a certain Teacher-Chuunin to a screeching halt...

Grumbling slightly about the fact that someone actually had the gall to ruin what could have been a perfect day; Anko ran her fingers through her hair before getting up from the only comfortable armchair that had survived Naruko's moving into the house. Slowly, determined to let the somewhat unwelcome visitor wait for a little while, Anko made her way to the front door, picking up a randomly strewn overcoat in the process.

If it was a male visitor... Well... She didn't need any more blood in her household and possibly blemishing her tanned skin.

When she finally did arrive, she grasped the doorknob and swung it open with enough force to display her agitation.

"What d'ya want punk!" She demanded angrily, not even looking at the intruder who had so ruined her afternoon¼

"Good to see you too." She had heard this voice before. The strong, kind sound of age that carried power. A baritone voice that held a small tinge of amusement. A voice that _definitely_ belonged to the Hokage himself.

"Hokage-sama!" Anko looked down at the smaller man and was taken completely by surprise.Her mouth hung open, she had never even thought herself important enough to warrant a visit from the Hokage. It wasn't everyday that the leader of your village stood at your front door after all!

Remembering her manners, she invited him in. "Please, come in!" She moving out of the way to allow him entry to her home.

"Hello my dear, and thank you." The older man tipped the rim of his triangular hat with his fingers. His smile flashed brightly, and stepped inside.

"Please take a seat in the living-room, I'll be right with you." Anko mentally slapped herself. Even at her present age, this man was still able to make her as nervous as a newly graduated Genin.

After sending him on his way, she hurried towards the kitchen. "Would you like some tea?" She asked.

"If it isn't too much trouble!" He called back, mirth dancing on the tip of his tongue.

Immediately she set out to make some tea. A loud clatter of ceramics and small teaspoons filled the air soon after, followed closely by a desperate cry of steam escaping the narrow nuzzle of a teapot. With slight hesitance, she placed it, the cups, and two small saucers with sugar cubes and tea bags piled on top of them respectively, on a large tray.

She wondered what the old man might want with her. She stopped dead in her tracks as realization hit her...

_Mizuki_

Iruka had told her that he would not press charges of any kind against her little sister. Had Sandaime maybe changed his mind?

Would she be...

Anko forcefully rid herself of those thoughts and hurried towards the living room, slamming the doors of two lower cabinets shut with her foot, all the while still balancing the tray perfectly. As she entered the room, she saw the Third seated on the large sofa at the far edge of the living room, perfectly at ease with everything around him. The robes he wore slide down his body like malleable silk, his body seemed almost... predatory, as if he could leap into action at any moment. Anko let out a short breath she hadn't known she was holding as the man beamed up towards her, sliding his fingertips over the hat that was placed next to him.

She set the tray on the table that stood in the centre of the living room, pouring his tea and offering it to him –two cubes of sugar, he didn't want to ruin his teeth any more than he already had- before pouring herself some as well.

"So..." She started softly, stirring the contents of her cup with a small teaspoon as she sat herself back into her comfortable armchair. "What did you want to talk to me about, Hokage-sama?" She sipped her tea, savouring its underlying bitterness, and tried not too look too anxious.

"I need you to teach a team of Genin." His voice was flat, clear-cut.

The tea that was still in her mouth quite suddenly found itself spewed out dramatically. The spray still hung in the air as her brown eyes widened to dinner plates. "Wh-what!" She spluttered in surprise and shock.

"There is a team of new graduates that I need you to teach." He smiled benignly, clearly amused at her antics.

"No way!" She protested adamantly, placing her cup on the table just to make sure there wouldn't be any more mishaps. "No way in hell, old man!" All respect had clearly been thrown out the window.

"Now, now, don't be like that, Anko." The wrinkled face of the third beamed at her again. "If I remember correctly, you told me you'd do anything to repay that debt you owed me."

'Damn...' Anko's eyebrow twitched involuntarily as she averted her face and grimaced.

The Third stood up in a ruffling of robes and placed his hat back on his head. Anko didn't pay him any mind. 'Tch... I knew that was gonna come and bite me in the ass someday¼'

"Besides, we're lacking a Jounin-instructor. Yuuhi Kurenai-san wanted to wait another year before taking on the challenge of teaching a team youngsters like Naruko..." He explained, taking off his hat and rubbing his scalp absentmindedly.

An uncomfortable silence followed until he spoke up again.

"Anko..." He started slowly, giving her a meaningful look. "You are the only one who really understands her¼ You are the only one who can control her if..."

"Don't say it!" The woman said resolutely, slicing through the air with her hand as if to literally cut off the man's sentence. "I don't want to hear it! There's no way that will happen." She hesitated for a moment, her angry frown that had appeared dying down to a expressionless look.

The Third stared at her, almost expecting or knowing her answer...

"I'll do it." Her slowly spreading smirk matched his benign smile. "Just don't come crying to me when she kicks your butt and becomes Hokage."

"Oh?" Sarutobi smiled broadly now and couldn't suppress a chuckle. "I'll be looking forward to the day I can finally sit down and rest my weary bones..."

Anko only let out a boisterous laugh, nodding to herself, all the while suppressing her anxious dread...

* * *

"Aaargh! Where are they!" Naruko asked for what seemed the hundredth time.

Her classmates glared at her, clearly annoyed.

"I don't know! So stop asking!" Sakura replied hotly, throwing the girl a furious glare that made Naruko even more agitated.

"I wasn't asking _you_, pinky!" The blonde shot back, pointing a finger toward Sakura as she spoke.

Huffing, Sakura turned around and plunked down onto one of the now numerous empty benches. Inner Sakura must've been plenty pissed...

Naruko was in a similar state. Sans inner personality, of course.

They had been waiting now for a good three hours. Waiting for who-knows what to arrive and introduce themselves, and it was rapidly growing old.

"Pipe down willya?" Over in a far corner, Inuzuka Kiba was seated on the ground, mock-wrestling with his pet –and apparent best friend- Akamaru. The small puppy snapped at his master's fingers playfully. Kiba whisked them past his maw only to have the pup snap at them again. Naruko shot him another of Anko's patented Death Stares before Akamaru barked his assent to the boy's statement.

"..." As always, the Genius of the Uchiha clan, Uchiha Sasuke, sat removed from his classmates. He was the picture perfect bishounen -brooding and angsty, giving wave after wave of "I am better than you, praise me for the littlest thing' while covering the lower half of his face with his interlaced fingers.

Naruko grimaced towards the back of his head. His oddly... Parakeet shaped head... The thought made her stifle a fit of giggles.

At the sound of her laughter, the Bishi-prince turned back to look at her. Naruko offered him a smirk. After whispering something she couldn't hear, he turned back to contemplate his dark, dark soul.

He was probably wasting his time by thinking about the many ways his new team-mates would slow him down, anyways... 'Bastard...'

Naruko's searching look fell onto her new team-mate. The laziest Genin alive, it seemed. He was actually lying on his back on the teacher's desk, for Gods sake!

Nara Shikamaru...

Currently, his eyes were closed. He made no movements save for the rhythmic, almost serene rise and fall of his chest. Every breath, rise. Every release, fall. It became somewhat hypnotic...

In other words: Shikamaru was fast asleep.

Naruko stared at him with a bemused expression before sauntering over to her own best friend; Hinata. Naruko lowered herself onto the bench next to her blue-haired friend and heaved a heavy sigh. "So, Hinata-chan, who do you think will be our new teacher?"

Hinata shook her head gently and folded her hands in her lap. The girl seemed to be nervous, again. "I don't know."

"Hmmm..." The blonde girl tapped her chin, then grinned broadly. "Well, at least we didn't get that chimney-guy!" Hinata looked at her, only to see Naruko smiling a broad, reminiscing smile. " Did you see the look on Ino's face? HAH!"

By 'chimney-guy', Naruko meant one of the teachers that had actually managed to arrive on time. She wasn't completely sure; but, she though it was someone called Sarutobi Asuma.

Her older sister had mentioned that name a few times anyway... 'He can't be that important...'

A small smile curved at the edges of Hinata's lips. "N-Naruko-chan, you shouldn't call p-people names..." She admonished her energetic friend gently.

"Awww, Hinataaaa... But it's fun!" Sapphire eyes still sparkled mischievously through a playful pout.

Even though thoroughly indoctrinated in the ways of proper etiquette and courteous behaviour, Hinata couldn't really refute that. She would never be able to bring herself to being as rash and crude as her friend, but still...

Naruko was obviously keen on adding something to their light banter; but, before she got the chance, something hurtled through an open window, upsetting the teacher's desk as it landed and sending the pony-tailed youth sprawling on the floor.

"Whoo! Haven't done that in a while!" A tangle of messy black hair bobbed up and down as the 'something' patted itself down- sending small puffs of chalk powder drifting lazily into the air. "Ahhh, sure brings back memories though!"

Every set of eyes was glued to the figure, who -by now- was sporting a huge smile. An uncannily familiar one at that¼

"So, where are the brats of team Ten?"

* * *

After the shock of someone suddenly throwing herself through an open room had worn off, the annoyance of their new Jounin's lengthy absence still remained with Kiba and Sakura.

Sasuke maintained his stony silence as always, but the slight twitch that had developed near the side of his eye certainly gave away that he was nearing a breaking point.

Growling, Kiba produced something, that at one point, had surely resembled a sturdy length of rope from the inside of his fur-lined jacket. Akamaru, barking happily, needed no further encouragement and immediately latched onto the free end to try and yank it out of his master's hands.

"Nee-chan..." Naruko asked disbelievingly, fiddling with her hitai-ate around her neck. "Are you really our new sensei?"

"Yup, sure am!" Anko laughed and placed her hands on the back of her head, leaning against the air even though she stood upright.

"E-excuse me..." Someone stuttered softly behind them.

After shifting slightly to see who was behind them, Anko's chocolate-brown eyes closed in a happy crinkle. "Ah, you're Hinata, right?"

Not trusting her own voice, the girl nodded fiercely. So fiercely, that the older woman wasn't so sure that Hinata's head was not in danger of snapping right off.

"Yeah, I remember you. I've seen you with Naruko a couple times, she told me a lot about you, you know?"

Chuckling, Naruko watched her friend blush furiously before she decided to help her out. "Hey, nee-chan. What are we going to do?"

Anko thought for a moment, rubbing her chin with her thumb. "Well, let's head to the roof. Dog-boy is making a racket."

Loud growls and bangs followed swiftly to accentuate her statement.

"But uh, where's the third kid?" She asked.

"Oh, he's over there." Naruko informed her, waving her hand at a rather unhappy looking boy. When Shikamaru had come too, he had tried to look invisible behind the frighteningly troublesome Jounin's back.

"Him?" A worried frown creased the woman's brow as she stared at him with a rather dubious expression. "He doesn't look like much..."

Shikamaru tried his best not to flinch noticeably. "I can hear you, you know..." He drawled as he rubbed a rather sore spot left from the fall he had endured earlier.

"Yeah, so?" Anko dead panned.

As he stood up and moved to the door -trying his best to ignore his new teacher, Hinata threw the boy sympathetic looks.

"Okay, you guys go up ahead, I need to talk to your team-mate here." Anko told the two, putting a hand on Naruko's shoulder and effectively pinning her in place.

Somewhat hesitantly, Hinata followed Shikamaru, who had already disappeared through the doorway. When she, too was gone, the Jounin grasped both of the blonde's shoulders.

"Right, Naruko-chan." She began grimly, locking her eyes with the girl's. "I know this is going to be awkward... But when in front of your team-mates, none of this 'nee-chan' business."

"Wha?" Naruko looked puzzled. "Why's that?"

Anko rolled her eyes. "Eh, the old man suggested we'd best go for semblance of discipline. So, when we're with those other two, it's either sensei, or Anko-sensei."

Naruko snorted and a smile started appearing until she noticed that Anko was actually serious. The grim set of her jaw told he she was deathly serious in fact. "But..."

"No 'But's'." Anko took a moment to look at her sisters pouting facade. She ruffled her hair absentmindedly."Sorry kiddo."

"Fine." Naruko said through gritted teeth, obviously thoroughly annoyed.

"Now come on, let's get going." Anko offered- pushing the girl in the small of her back before she took note of the other three students who still remained. "Hey, why are they still waiting?" She asked Naruko in a hushed tone.

"I don't know…" Naruko looked thoughtful for a split seconds. "...Kiba's getting really pissed though." The girl whispered back, covering her mouth with one hand.

And indeed he was. No longer content with playing tug-o-war with his pet; Akamaru, the bestial boy looked positively ready to rip the classroom to shreds.

"Come on, let's get out of here before he gets really wild." Anko suggested as she ushered a snickering Naruko out of the classroom... That is, ushered her out of the classroom just as the girl gave Sakura the evil eye and stuck her tongue out teasingly.

Despite having already gone up to the third floor, it didn't prevent Hinata and Shikamaru from hearing Sakura's frenzied shrieks.

* * *

"What's the plan, _sensei_?" Naruko asked innocuously, even fluttering her eyelashes for added effect as she stood amidst her two team-mates on the roof of the academy.

Anko scowled, she didn't appreciate this bout of sarcasm. But just as quickly as it had come it had disappeared, and the dark-haired Jounin put on a beaming smile. "Right! Check yourselves. All ninja-gear in place?" -Her students nodded- "Your forehead protectors wrapped securely around your¼" -Shikamaru's was tied around his biceps, Hinata's snaked around her neck, as was Naruko's- "…wherever?"

Why did they even bother to call them forehead protectors when so many of the Genin wore them wherever they please?

"Both butt-cheeks still there?" She added with a wink.

If it were possible, a sweat drop the size of a melon would have appeared on the back each of the children's heads.

Not really waiting for an answer, Anko turned around and pumped a fist into the air. "Let's gooooo!" She proclaimed happily. But when she didn't hear the sounds of rushing Shinobi behind her, she stopped dead in her tracks.

"Uhm..." Hinata started, looking thoroughly confused.

"What?" The woman asked, her smile making way for a puzzled expression shot over her shoulder.

"Aren't we supposed to get to know each other better?" Shikamaru finished, one eyebrow threatening to disappear into his hairline.

Naruko was busy trying to stop herself from laughing out loud. Anko would surely kill the male for that.

Shikamaru looked around, lost. He didn't know what was so funny... The timid girl next to him wasn't much help either. All she didwas poke her fingertips against one another uselessly.

"Oh..." Anko's excitement was ebbing away swiftly and she definitely seemed somewhat deflated now."Well, I suppose you're right."

An uncomfortable silence followed, and by this time, Naruko was snorting audibly. Even Hinata couldn't suppress a smile.

Sighing, Shikamaru cradled his forehead with his palm. "Seeing you're our sensei, shouldn't you go first?"

"Well, I suppose you're right." She rubbed her chin and put on a thoughtful pout, apparently mulling over what she might say. After a short pause, her smile returned ten-fold. Naruko knew that smile. It was one of Anko's most deadly.

Anko sat on the railing of the roof, leaning over with her elbows on her knees.

The trio of youngsters took this as a sign to sit down as well, every single one of them turning their attention to their new teacher- even Shikamaru. (albeit somewhat ruefully...)

Taking this as a cue to start, Anko began. "My name is Mitarashi Anko, I like lots of things..." They expected a list of normal, parental things. "Like¼ dango!" Two of the three Genin face-faulted. "...And I love playing pranks." Someone stared at her rather incredulously here, one of the trio suppressed a snort... "I hate snotty little brats who eat my dango..."

"Hey!"

"...and lots of other stuff." They looked at her, expectant. "My dream..." The woman's eyes darkened slightly. That look Naruko had never seen before. She suddenly wanted to know everything she didn't know about her sister. Anko apparently recovered and scratched the back of her head, just underneath her messy ponytail. "...I won't bore you with that!"

'So she's a cruel woman who stuffs herself with dango...?' Shikamaru wondered, and would have been pitying himself if he even considered it worth the effort. Although, that point seemed awfully close now.

Forget watching clouds while lying comfortably on some grassy hill. If things were going to continue much longer, he might have to content himself by balling up into a foetal position and sucking his thumb in some dark corner of the village...

"Okay, you, pineapple-head..." The rather rude nickname shook him out of his gloomy thoughts as his appointed teacher stared at him, motioning for him to start. "...you go next."

Expelling a gargantuan sigh, he ignored the _remark_ about his hairstyle. It wasn't a fashion statement. He just never took the time to brush it out. If his father could look cool and unaffected by the world while wearing such a ponytail, so could he.

Shikamaru resigned himself to at least make the slightest bit of effort. "My name is Nara Shikamaru... I like... stuff." Naruko raised her eyebrow. He caught on and explained. "...It's too damn troublesome to hate things!" He grunted in exasperation and tilted his head back slightly, staring at the sky. "My hobbies... Shougi or Go I guess... And my dream is¼ to retire, have a good wife who serves me drinks, and maybe have a couple of kids... or something..."

Well, at least he did put an effort into it, as insignificant as it may be...

Anko narrowed her eyes at the black-haired boy. 'From the Nara clan, that means he's a lazy twit, a shadow-user and, knowing what his father has told me about him, probably hates women¼ Perfect!'

When the slight glare made way for what could be described as a very devious smile, Shikamaru twitched slightly. "What?"

"Oh, nothing." She replied, pointing at Hinata next. "Okay, you're up."

"Uhm¼ My name is H-hyuga Hinata. I l-like being friends w-with Naruko-chan..." Eyes cast downwards, she blushed furiously as if she had something that might have upset someone. The girl in question though, gave her a playful shove and grinned broadly. "I a-also like to study medicine a-and I like to cook... I d-don't think there's anything I d-dislike..." She paused for a moment as if to steel herself for her upcoming words. "My dream is to become a strong Kunoichi, and to make my father proud of me..." The last few words were almost spoken in a whisper, but with remarkable clarity.

Nodding to herself, Anko thought about the timid girl's words but then smiled warmly at her. 'Obviously she has great potential...There's just something standing in the way...'

"Me next! Me, me, me, me!"

Anko didn't even have to look to know who had spoken those words. "Yes, yes. You're next, Naruko-chan..."

"Alright!" A fist raised in front of her, Naruko began her... _rant_. "My name is Mitarashi Naruko! I love ramen! And I love hanging out with Hinata-chan, she's cool!"

Next to her, Hinata shrunk into her coat, wishing the ground would gobble her up and make her disappear. Naruko was her best friend, but sometimes she could really embarrass her.

Not taking notice, the blonde girl continued energetically. "I hate cheapskates who don't buy enough ramen for me, and I hate people who underestimate me!" Now it was Shikamaru's turn to raise an eyebrow but he kept his thoughts unnoticed. "...My hobbies are training and playing pranks, hehehe." She grinned broadly, which was mirrored by her sister perfectly. "My dream... Is to become Hokage and protect the ones I love!"

"Heh, good!" Anko clapped her hands together and rubbed them excitedly before jumping onto the railing. "Now that we're all acquainted, it's time for some _fun_!" The three barely had time to process her words before she shouted another gleeful proclamation. "Follow me!"

Not waiting for an answer, she back-flipped over the five-story high roof, into the milling crowd below.

Shikamaru looked...well, the word could be 'Mortified' but his look of helplessness was priceless...

Shrugging, Naruko placed a hand on the railing and vaulted over it, following her sister.

Hinata let a slow smile grace her features and followed suite.

Releasing another gargantuan sigh, Shikamaru took the stairs...

* * *

With some difficulty, they managed to follow their instructor- weaving this way and that through the crowds of Konoha's populace. It wasn't until they were already half-way, that Naruko knew where they were going.

It was the place she and her sister had sparred many a times before. They called it their playground, but other people generally referred to it as training field five. Surrounded by a thick lining of trees, the field was somewhat secluded. But only just secluded enough so that a pair of sparring partners could practice without interruptions.

A completely relaxed Anko greeted the three Genin as they finally arrived. She leaned against a tree and tossed the half-finished stick of dango she was eating on the way there into oblivion.

She assessed them for a moment. They were nervous, that much was clear at least. Shikamaru lagged behind. Hinata was almost out of breath. Naruko looked... Normal.

Anko approached them slowly. "Okay, now that we're here, I want to see what you guys are made of." Instantly, Naruko's features brightened. "...So, a little spar is in order." Anko grinned evilly and produced a pair of kunai, making it appear as if they materialised into her hands out of thin air when in fact, she had speedily snagged them out of her coat pocket."Shikamaru-kun, you're first. Don't hold back now..." The boy looked at her as though she were mad. "_I won't_…"

Shikamaru eyed the twirling kunai nervously. "She... She's not serious, is she?"

Shaking her head, the blonde girl gave him a mournful look. "She is..."

Hinata just stammered, her fingers poking against one another as usual. "M-maybe you s-should run, Shikamaru-kun..."

At that moment, the boy couldn't help but agree with Hinata's suggestion...

Nearly three hours later, the phrases; beaten, battered and thoroughly exhausted, perfectly summed up the state of the three Genin as they each went their separate ways to their homes. Hinata had sore muscles she didn't even knew existed, Naruko was nursing multiple bruises and shallow cuts, and Shikamaru sported a broken finger.

Their new teacher had informed them to be in front of the academy at seven am sharp the next day. She didn't tell them why, and not even the incessant whining from Naruko had worked.

The girl didn't know why, but it really felt as if she had had to bear the brunt of the -well, she guessed it could classify as brutal- punishment that Anko had inflicted upon them.

It was certainly more exhausting than her usual sparring with the older woman anyway.

But for some reason, she was glad. Naruko didn't want any special favours. Besides, she didn't care too much if it meant getting stronger faster.

As the girl walked home with Anko, somewhat hampered by the massive bruise on her left thigh that flared with pain every time she took a step forwards, she reflected on the day so far.

She doubted if her team could have turned out any better. Hinata, her best friend, and that lazy guy Shikamaru. As long as he didn't annoy her, she was sure they would be able to get on just fine. He was nice enough. But entirely too lazy. Maybe she would have preferred if it had been Shino instead though. Sure the guy was really quiet, and he seemed to have a sort of obsession with what most people would consider 'creepy crawly things', but he seemed alright.

Naruko was really curious about what Shikamaru could do though. He had gotten beaten to a pulp almost immediately, showing only an average talent for Taijutsu, but it seemed like he was holding back somehow. He never used a Ninjutsu, where even Hinata had threatened to use a Kaiten (Naruko remembered the Kaiten. And even if her friend hadn't really mastered it, she remembered it painfully. She had made the mistake of upsetting Hinata's father once.)

Well, she would have to think about it later, for her sister suddenly stopped when they reached one of the many crossroads in Konohagakure.

"What's wrong?" She asked, squinting her eyes due to the glaring sun.

"Listen, Naruko-chan." Anko beckoned her younger sister closer. "I can't go home with you today, I've got another meeting."

The blonde looked crestfallen for a moment, but hid it quickly underneath an understanding smile. "It's okay."

"Thanks, squirt." The dark-haired Jounin leaned downwards and pressed her lips to the girl's forehead lightly. "I'll be home soon though, don't eat dinner without me."

"I won't." A genuine smile framed Naruko's face now as she watched Anko disappear in a blur of movement. 'She won't notice a few dango missing, will she?'

* * *

The next morning started normally enough. Normal of course being somewhat relative as far as the Mitarashi household was concerned. A few pieces of furniture were upturned and the glass protecting one of the many pictures that lined the walls had cracked when the frame holding it dropped on the floor. But, at least no-one was hurt...

Anko had left an hour earlier than Naruko, saying she needed to swing by the Academy and pick up some files with information on her new students. That left the girl with a bit of free time before she would head out herself.

Needless to say, she was completely bored out of her mind.

It took an age before the big clock in the living room finally informed her that there were ten minutes left before she would be expected in front of the academy along with Shikamaru and Hinata. And after giving her gear a final quick check, she bolted out of the house and ran as fast as she could towards the academy.

When she arrived, breathless, and still with five minutes to spare, she had managed to knock over at least three carts, make the old mister from the porcelain shop drop a crate full of expensive china with a loud crash, and bump into a cranky lady carrying a box filled with eggs which sent them sailing into the air to rain down on a multitude of people.

Yep, all was normal in Naruko's world.

"Hey."

Naruko nearly jumped out of her skin.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!" She screeched, clutching her chest with her right hand.

"Saying hello." The disinterested tone made it clear that no other explanation would be forthcoming.

Unlike Naruko, Shikamaru had strolled leisurely towards the meeting point. Trying his very best not to put too much effort into it. It had been bad enough with his mother dragging him out of bed and kicking him out almost an hour early after all.

"Hey." The girl grumbled, still slightly miffed about the fact that the boy had managed to sneak up on her like that, even though it hadn't really been his fault.

The remaining minutes passed in silence, broken only by the happy chirping of several birds in nearby trees. When it was seven o'clock, a loud crack and a cloud of smoke heralded the arrival of Anko, broad grin included.

"Gooooodmorning!" She greeted her two students energetically. "You guys ready?"

Shikamaru nodded, albeit nearly imperceptibly. He unconsciously bent his broken-now-healed finger.

Naruko swung her head from side to side, clearly unsure. "Where's Hinata-chan?"

This was indeed a rare occurrence. Normally, it was Hinata who was very punctual. As far as Naruko knew, the Hyuuga had never been tardy for classes or anything else for that matter.

"Ah, here she comes." Anko uttered suddenly, her gaze fixed on a slouched figure getting ever closer.

"Hey!" Naruko yelled, waving a hand wildly above her head.

"I-I'm sorry f-for being late, Mitarashi-sensei..." The girl mumbled once she was close enough to be heard.

"No big deal, you were only a minute late anyway." Anko waved the girl's apology away, and at the same time cringed at the honorific use of her last name. "Call me by my first name, okay? I'm not _that_ old yet..."

"Yes you are." Naruko's grin nearly split her face in two and immediately found herself on the receiving end of a fist on the top of her head.

* * *

"Alright, listen up you miserable excuses for ninja!" Anko shouted, all amusement gone from her face as she towered ominously over the three figures in front of her. "Here's the deal!"

Naruko perked up only a little. Living for six years with Mitarashi Anko made her somewhat immune to the woman's intimidation tactics. Shikamaru likewise didn't pay too much attention, for he was sure that the law stated that Jounin instructors were not allowed to truly harm their students.

Pretty sure anyway.

Though the more time he spent with Anko, the more he was becoming increasingly aware that the woman had no real qualms about bending and or breaking some rules. In his case, that could be considered somewhat life-threatening…

Hinata seemed to be the only one visibly affected by the Jounin's words. She was one hair's-breadth away from cowering like a frightened rabbit, and it took all of her willpower not to bolt right there and then.

Consequences be damned.

The three had been taken to a remote location. Somewhere where they had never before. It was certainly a desolate place by the looks it. It was at the edge of the great forest surrounding their village, but the ground they stood upon was dry, cracked and an uninviting beige. Several boulders –their sizes varying as much from the size of a small house to the size of a fist- littered the clearing they found themselves in.

Anko's voice changed tone from rather imperious and overbearing to gleeful and severely sadistic. "I'm going to hunt you down, every single one of you..." She licked her lips, very nearly shivering in delight. "I've set the timer for noon..." Here she waved her hand lazily towards a small wooden clock that was set upon a large log next to her, placed there for some odd reason. "You can avoid me any way you wish. The ones whom I don't manage to capture... pass..."

The Genin stared at her. Their minds all thinking along the lines of; 'Is she for real?'.

"What do you mean?" Naruko demanded angrily.

"It's quite easy really." The older woman shrugged. "If I catch you, I'll tie you to this..." She patted the log affectionately. "...and I'll kick your butt back to the academy for another year."

She waited for a few seconds to let the gravity of her words sink in, and then, right on cue...

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!"

With eyes widened, jaw nearly hitting the ground, Naruko pointed at Anko.

"But... B-but..." The Jounin shifted her attention to a stammering Hinata. "W-we passed the g-graduation exam, d-didn't we?"

"Yup." Anko tucked a few strands of hair behind the back of her ear and smiled sweetly. "But we can't flood our ranks with crappy Shinobi. Only three teams will make it. So that's a fail rate of sixty-six point seven percent."

"Pfft." Shikamaru scoffed, seemingly unaffected by the news. "I knew it couldn't have been that easy." He fidgeted from foot to foot, hands busying themselves with a jutsu in his pockets.

"Whaddayamean easy!" Naruko roared, making the boy wince and temporarily stop his waggling fingers."There wasn't anything easy about it, you asshole!" A flare of red flashed behind her iris...

'Hmm...' Anko wondered, scratching her nose with her thumb. She didn't catch the red. 'Maybe it wasn't a good idea to tell her. She only curses like that when she's _really_ upset...'

"And _you_!" Naruko focussed on her sister once more, trembling with rage. "What's the goddamned idea!"

Hinata reached out, trying to calm her friend, but the girl shrugged her off. A sense of dread hung in the air. The red was back, tainting the blonde's normally brilliant-blue eyes.

"Oi, calm down now." Anko said in what she hoped was a pacifying manner, waving her hands in front of her.She still hadn't noticed the eye-colour change.

"The trouble... I went through..." The girl was babbling incoherently, lost in the throes of her anger. A minuscule outline of scarlet tainted her aura, but only those bodily close would have noticed.

"I'm not going to go back!"

It was suddenly very hot and compressive in the clearing...

Gasping, Hinata saw the blonde extract two kunai. She would've said stop, but felt compelled to draw out her own kunai. Naruko immediately leapt forwards towards her new sensei, a killing rage intently focussing on one Mitarashi Anko.

Looking back, it had only taken a split second. The blur of clothing and speed. The fraction of a second it took for Anko to disarm her and hook her leg around her neck in an arced kick and bring her to the ground. Naruko suddenly wanted to be stronger, suddenly wanted to rise up and destroy her sibling...

But immediately, the anger faded and Naruko was only squirming on the ground with her face lodged in the dirt. Hinata gasped again as her mind took in all that had happened. Shikamaru merely half-finished his jutsu preparation, leaving the jutsu a hand symbol away from completion.

A deceptively calm Anko was seated on Naruko' back, pinning the girl's arms behind her head with one iron-sealed grip.

"Naruko-chan..." She sounded disappointed. "You haven't failed yet, have you?"

The girl coughed, refusing to look at her sister as she lay on the ground.

"And besides..." Anko ignored her other two shocked students and released Naruko, leaving her to crawl upright slowly. "...I didn't said we could start yet, did I?"

Once the young girl stood between her team-mates –her cheeks aflame despite herself, she continued. "You'll get a twenty minute head start." She started counting down in her mind. "I suggest you make the most of it. I won't go easy on you guys and neither should you go easy on me."

Naruko glared at her, hating the fact that she had been embarrassed in front of her best friend, but the dark-haired woman took it in stride.

"Ready?" She asked. "No?" She questioned after Hinata brought her hand to her trembling lip. "Too bad, the twenty minutes start... Now."

At that signal, Naruko grabbed a hold of the timid girl's large coat. "Let's go."

Nodding, Hinata turned around and vanished along with her friend.

When the two had disappeared, Anko's eyebrow twitched dangerously. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" She demanded venomously.

"I give up..." Shikamaru sighed and stuck his hands in his front pockets, not wanting to put any effort into today's test. "There's no use for me to try and run, I'll just do it again next year."

Anko's eye brow twitched dangerously. "Wrong!" She roared, grabbing the boy by the base of his neck and flinging him across the clearing towards the tree line.

That was _not_ a part of the plan. Anko was supposed to say; "Okay", and turn around. Then he would unleash his family's very own shadow jutsu and bind her.

_Damnit_

"Run, ya little twerp! Or I'm going to beat the crap out of you!"

Shikamaru needed no further encouragement and slunk into the shadows of the trees...

* * *

_A/N:_

_First of all: Loads of thanks to Thrice Crossed Fool, who's been terribly gracious to beta this chapter for me. You people be dears and go read his stories, they're awesome!_

_Yeah__¼__ So here is the new chapter. A bit shorter than the previous two as you might have noticed. I received some comments that shorter chapters might be more easily digestible. And it would cut back on the time it takes for me to update. This chapter being a testimony of that. I already had it done about two weeks ago._

_I hope you enjoyed this chapter. And I especially hope I've been able to give you guys a few laughs as well._

_I've gone on a different route as far as the test goes. But hopefully, it'll be just as entertaining –and hopefully more- than the bell-test in the original manga. Oh, and if any of you were wondering? Yes, Konohamaru pops up in the next chapter._

_If I can fit him in somewhere that is_...

_Oh well, that's it for me. On to the review response!_

**_Thrice Crossed Fool:_**_ Yes, well I'm glad you found it genius, now you go beta that one as well! Mwhahahahahaha! Thanks for beta-ing man, I really appreciate it._

**_FenrisLupus_**_ Yeah, yeah, it's shorter now. Happy? Thanks for the kind words, as always. _

**_Chedving_**_ Thanks for the review! I'll try and catch ya on ICQ more often, but I've been away way too many times lately. Update soon!_

**_Dragon Man 180:_**_ All your questions have been answered methinks. Thanks for the review!_

**_Yondaime-samaKazaraYume_**_ You have, huh:P _

**_Cobra-100:_**_ Hehehe, looking underneath the underneath are we? But hey, there are way more than twenty Shounen-ai stories for every Shoujo-ai though… It's a shame really. Maybe you should write something too, hmmm?_

**_EfrainMan_**_ Yes, there will be a big mission before the Chuunin exam. I don't have it clearly outline yet though, but I'm getting there._

**_shina-lim_**_ Don't worry, I'm just really slow with updating. I am not discontinuing anything. ;)_

**_Dapster_**_ Laughter is a beautiful thing, I'm glad I was able to provide it. Thanks for the review!_

**_Tombadgerlock_**_ Who said Anko didn't give Naruko any special training, hmm:P_

**_ToushinisKing_**_ Anko rules!_

**_Dan Inverse, TimeReaper, Kitsune-Itai, Dyroness, Skuld's Sentaro3, Misarashi Tsukamaru,_**_ thank you all so much for your reviews, they make my day!_

_I hope I'll get another batch of reviews, I love reading them. Please let me know what you think of the chapter. Any suggestions and comments are always appreciated!_

* * *

**Preview for the next chapter: **

Morino Ibiki was less than pleased. He considered himself a nice guy, he really did, but when they asked him to interrogate a weakling like the traitor Mizuki, he tended to get a little upset.

He had barely applied the thumbscrews and branding irons before the snivelling little twerp broke down into tears and spilled everything, begging for mercy.

Dang it, he had really wanted to test out that knew knife set that Anko had bought for him for his last birthday…

Regardless, the information his impromptu confession had yielded, was very… _interesting_…


	5. Suvival

**Altered Destiny**

Title subject to change, rating PG13 to be on the safe side.

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, I do own the plot of this story (for as far as there is one) and the extra characters I may or may not add._

_Response to reviews at the bottom, be sure to read the A/N's._

**Chapter 05 – Survival:**

"_I give up..." Shikamaru sighed and stuck his hands in his front pockets, not putting any effort into today's test. "There's no use for me to try and run, I'll just do it again next year."_

_Anko's eye brow twitched dangerously. "Wrong!" She roared, grabbing the boy by the base of his neck and flinging him across the clearing towards the treeline. "Run, ya little twerp! Or I'm going to beat the crap out of you!"_

_Shikamaru needed no further encouragement._

_

* * *

_

"_Nee-chan!"_

_An impatient little snort sounded just above Anko's head and she smiled slightly. "Yes, Naruko-chan?"_

"_Is that old man really going to let me live with you now?" The seven year-old wrapped her small arms around Anko's forehead, sneezing as the spiky ponytail brushed her nose._

_Instead of answering directly, the Kunoichi replied with her own question. "You already live with me, don't you?" _

"_But he said that it was eel eelli" The small blonde scrunched her itching nose as she thought._

"_Illegal?"_

"_Yes!" The child exclaimed with breathless relief._

"_Don't worry about that, Naruko-chan." Anko smiled, and the two lapsed into comfortable silence. Briefly._

"_Am I going to be a great ninja like you?"_

_Anko laughed. The unending stream of questions still often surprised her. She was sure that she hadn't been quite so curious when she was seven. "You're going to be way better than me!"_

"_Really?" The tone of wonder clearly permeated the young girl's voice._

"_Really." Anko stated with finality, shrugging her shoulders and nearly dislodging Naruko from her comfortable position._

_The child shrieked in surprise, which was followed quickly by a peal of giggles – something that Anko only added to seconds after it started._

_

* * *

_

Naruko checked, and rechecked the trap she had just set. She had taken her older sister's advice to heart, and had now used up at least half of her arsenal of weaponry. The girl tallied the weapons she still had after rummaging through the weapon's pouch strapped around her midsection.

"Hmmm." She murmured to herself. "Seven kunai, eight shuriken and no more throwing-daggers. Well, I hate those anyway."

Aside from that, she saw she had two more of the precious explosive tags; simple pieces of paper able to explode with terrific force with just a single one-handed seal. And a few smoke bombs, which she would only use to escape if she came face to face with Anko. It probably wouldn't do any good, but it was worth a try at any rate

"Hinata?" She beckoned her friend closer.

The girl in question moved closer and crouched next to Naruko. "Y-yes?"

"Do you still have enough weapons and other supplies?" The blonde girl raked her fingers through her hair and stood up after Hinata nodded an affirmative. "Okay. We'd better split up now, alright?"

Hinata blinked slowly. Though slightly hesitant about possibly facing Anko alone, the woman who was supposed to start hunting them down in about five minutes, she and Naruko had discussed the best possibilities of making the exam. And if the two were together, they might make a bigger target.

Noticing her inner conflict with the plan, Naruko took her hands and squeezed them softly. "You're a great Kunoichi, Hinata-chan. Probably better than me." She smiled. "We'll get through this test and then we'll become the greatest nins in the whole world!"

The blue-haired girl nodded weakly in return and hid her anxiety behind another soft smile but her friend's infectious optimism lifted her spirits considerably.

* * *

Saying that she was great was one thing. But now that Hinata was all alone, she certainly didn't feel all that confident anymore. Even less than before if it were at all possible. 

She knew that she was probably being silly, but every time the faintest sound reached her ears, she flinched uncontrollably. With every rustle of leaves, soft buzz of insects and the random creak of tree branches, the girl expected Anko to pop up out of nowhere and attack her.

The forest could sure be a scary place sometimes.

Hinata huddled closer to the tree. From her vantage point here, she had an excellent view of the ground below. She was hidden completely from prying eyes within the thick crown of leaves but they still allowed her to look outwards. At least, she thought she was. Who knew what tricks a Jounin had for finding people...

Even with her meager skills with the Byakugan, there was no way to be absolutely sure that she could safely hide _anywhere_ with a bloodthirsty Jounin on the prowl.

The blue-haired girl checked her watch. It had been an hour since she had split up with her friend. She had no idea what Shikamaru was doing, let alone where he was but she expected him to do the same as she was. After waiting a few more seconds, she decided it was time for another sweep with the Byakugan.

Closing her eyes, Hinata went through the flurry of hand seals that would activate her family's trademark ability. When the necessary hand seals were taken care of, she whispered as softly as she could. "Byakugan!"

Veins instantly became more prominent around the corner of her eyes. She could feel her perspectives shift as her mind recognized that she could now see all around her. She lifted her eyelids softly. Gone was the insecurity in her aquamarine eyes. Now they brimmed with power, though it was a power she didn't control perfectly... _yet_.

Her family's bloodline limit was prized among all others, but Hinata hated it. Just because of her eyes she was expected to be the greatest and act accordingly. She was supposed to be knowledgeable in all things, and was not supposed to be scared of anything. To stand against a Hyuuga meant failure. Hinata was supposed to treat every challenge presented to her as if it meant nothing. That just wasn't in her nature

Yet this wasn't the time to reflect on that. The Byakugan allowed her a three-hundred-and-sixty degree field of vision. It was impossible to sneak up on her with the ability to see through solid material and see the actual chakra pathways of objects and/or people, this was a frighteningly powerful genetic heritage indeed. Especially coupled with the Jyuken taijutsu style her Father was starting to teach her... Maybe she should not have been afraid of Naruko's older sister as much...?

She concentrated for a few moments, focusing on any movement around her. Her heart skipped a beat when a thicket rustled, but sighed in relief when it only turned out to be a deer foraging for juicy leaves to nibble on. She felt everything around her sway and move. She felt the ground beneath her move. The Byakugan might've been a mighty Bloodline, but it was sensory overload to the blue-haired girl. It seemed that Anko wasn't in the area anyways, and the chakra strain of keeping up the technique began to wear on her body already.

Deactivating her ability, Hinata allowed herself to relax slightly and reached towards her back with her left hand. But where there should have been a canteen filled with water, there was now only air 'What...?'

"Looking for this?"

The shock of hearing the voice nearly sent Hinata tumbling down towards the forest floor in a dead faint, but - and surprising even herself - she managed to steady herself and turn to the source of the voice.

When she saw who it was, she let out a scream.

* * *

'Man, this blows chunks!' Naruko grumbled in her mind. 'Really big and thick ones too!' 

Never content with staying still for too long, she didn't know how long she would be able to, _and_ remain hidden _and_ prevent herself from being captured.

She was just itching for something to do.

Just then, Hinata's scream rang clearly through the forest.

"Shit!" She cursed. "I'M COMING HINATA!"

* * *

"Seems like those eyes of yours aren't worth much yet, huh?" Anko whispered into Hinata's ear. "Maybe another year at the academy will sort that out." Her tone instinctively told Hinata that she had no chance of escape. 

The girl trembled in fright, unable to do a thing. She squirmed fitfully and tried to kick backwards, but failed. She was caught. The older woman had effectively pinned her arms behind her back and had twisted them into an almost painful knot.

She wanted to yell or to shout in frustration. She wanted to turn around and do a Kaiten, a full body spin exuding a carefully regulated amount of chakra as a measure of absolute defence, straight into the woman's face. But she wasn't strong enough yet. And if she had the proper understanding of the situation now, she would never be. It seemed as if her body and throat were not working anymore.

"I'm kind of disappointed though." Anko stated calmly. She might as well have been discussing the weather. "I had expected more of you."

Hinata squeaked as the Jounin pressed herself more firmly into her back, twisting her arms even further.

"Better luck next time." The dark-haired Kunoichi murmured dejectedly. Hinata's trembling increased ten-fold.

A sharp tap at the base of the young girl's neck and all went blissfully black.

Anko observed the limp form of Hyuuga Hinata in her arms a moment longer, then disappeared as silently as she had come - a tell-tale falling of leaves the only thing that signified Anko's retreat.

But just scant seconds after the Jounin had whisked the unconscious girl away, Naruko bulled through a nearby briar patch, scratched and bruised after hastily making her way in the direction of her best friend's cry, and came to an abrupt stop.

"Hinata!" She called out, cupping her hands around her mouth to amplify the volume of her voice. "Hinataaaaaaaaaa! Where are you!"

There was no response and that worried her. She had been sure that the yelp came from this direction so... "HINATA!" She screamed once more, and to her mounting horror, no reply came. All that stood in the small patch of space were some seemingly out-of-place green leaves. When Naruko swung her head from side to side to see if she could spot Hinata's hiding place, and when she was just about to call out her name again, something half-hidden in the centre of the pile of leaves caught her eye and diverted her attention.

She bent down and picked it up for a closer look and discovered it was a piece of paper. 'Who would leave a...?' Naruko flipped the piece of paper over and discovered that it was a note clearly addressed to her and Shikamaru. Her name being written in jagged, fiery letters and Shikamaru's being written in the lovey-dovey swirls that a fan-girl might use to write to a certain raven-haired bishounen prince. The rest was definitely the messy scrawl of her big sister though. The note read:

_One down, two to go..._

Underneath was crude drawing of a chibi-Anko giving her a thumbs up. And underneath _that_ was...

_PS: You might want to run._

Naruko felt an eyebrow rising on its own accord. 'What the hell...?' Then something hit her. Quickly she flipped the paper over... again. Her eyes widened in horror as she realized what she was holding in her hands.

"Oh shi-!"

Already some distance away, Anko smirked deviously as she heard a faint explosion echo in the distance behind her.

'Two down, one to go...'

* * *

Shikamaru shook his head sadly as he watched the singed – and slightly smoking - form of Naruko limping her way from the blast site. He smiled to match his head-shaking and wondered how Naruko hadn't seen the explosive note. It was a different kind, that was to be sure, and he didn't know what Anko had done to the explosive tag. But it had sure seemed a hell of a lot more stronger than a regular one. 

He remained huddled in the shadows of a large oak tree, using a pile of branches and other woodland resources to give himself the perfect camouflage. Heck, it wasn't as if he hadn't done this before. People would be amazed at the effort he undertook to stay hidden from his mother at home.

'What the'

Where he was sure that Naruko would be teetering over and dropping to the forest floor unconscious, he witnessed her shake off a blast that he was sure would have killed him. Or at least reduced a fair few of his limbs to bloody and mangled stumps. 'No, scratch that…' He looked at the smouldering crater Naruko had just limped out of. 'Definitively would've killed me.'

Shikamaru was astounded. There she was, just flexing her arms and legs like nothing had happened! But Naruko didn't give him any more time for inspection, as she quickly set off on a steady sprint in the direction he had seen their teacher go.

His spiky ponytail swayed as he shook his head once more. Maybe he would have to get up and do something after all.

'This is too damn troublesome.' He sighed softly, a tired expression plastered on his face as he already contemplated a thousand different ways to help Naruko stop her insane sister.

* * *

When Hinata awoke, she had lost all sense of time. What she did manage to notice right away however, was the splitting pain in her head. And neck. And her entire backside… She realized she was forced up against a large, slightly circular object. Trying to move forward, she found herself restrained effectively by several layers of rope and knot work. 

Hinata let out a muffled sob when she remember what had happened. Already she could hear the dreaded alarm clock tick tauntingly just above her head. 'I'm still useless.'

She hung her head and bit her lower lip. How was she going to explain this to her family? What would her father say? He was already angry at the placement of teams this year, and had been incensed to learn that his daughter would be placed with two of the lowest scoring Genin in the entire academy! She thought about it longer and sighed... What would

"Yo!"

A not so subtle whisper brought her train of through to a crashing halt.

"I came to get you out of here!"

With her eyes growing wide in disbelief, Hinata craned her neck and found herself face to face with her blonde friend. "Naruko-chan!" She cried out.

Looking horrified, Naruko clamped a hand over Hinata's mouth. "Shhh!" She brought her index-finger to her lips and narrowed her eyes. "Don't be so loud!"

Well, that certainly was a change of pace. Naruko accusing Hinata of being too noisy.

The Hyuuga girl nearly broke a smile a that, but nodded quickly instead in a sign that she understood the need for silence.

"W-what are y-you doing here!" Hinata stammered after Naruko removed her hand and started to loosen the ropes.

The blonde raised an eyebrow, momentarily pausing in her endeavours as if she couldn't believe Hinata would ask such a thing. "Eh? What do you mean what am I doing here?" She bopped the blue-haired girl on the head lightly. "You're my friend you idiot, you really think I'd let you rot here?"

"B-but..." If she could, Hinata would be twiddling her thumbs right this moment. She sufficed for blushing rather embarrassedly.

"But what?" Naruko mirrored in a sigh of relief as the ropes slackened enough for Hinata to crawl out from under them.

Lifting her former bonds over her head and wringing her hands around her wrists in an effort to return the blood to her cramped extremities, Hinata dropped her gaze. "What if Anko-sensei f-finds you here?"

Naruko paused for a moment, tapping her chin thoughtfully. She hadn't exactly thought of that "Dunno." Came the answer at length.

"Eh!" Hinata jumped to her feet and, in a rather unprecedented behavioural pattern, stared indignantly at her friend. "Y-you c-could fail b-because of me!"

"Keep it down!" Naruko panicked and threw worried glances over her shoulders.

"We have to get back into the forest!" Hinata whispered urgently, and, after noticing her feet were still tied firmly together with a series of complex knots, made her way to the tree line in a odd sort of bunny-hop.

The blonde girl's jaw dropped at her friend's strange form of gratitude. "Fine!" She scowled and hurried after Hinata. "If that's how you want to play it!"

Two seconds later, Hinata squawked in surprise as her world went upside down and she found herself staring at the dark-blue which was the back of Naruto's jacket. "W-what are you"

"It's faster this way." Naruko explained, and shifted slightly to accommodate the other girl's weight on her shoulder.

And she was right. Sort off

Before either of them even had a chance to say anything further, or even disappear amongst the trees, they found themselves confronted by someone.

With his trademark - in other words; extremely bored - expression on his face, Shikamaru folded his arms in front of his chest as he leaned nonchalantly against the trunk of a particularly wide oak-tree. Ignoring the surprised look on Naruko's face, he asked them a simple question after releasing a resigned sigh.

"You guys ready to hear my plan, or ya gonna keep running around like a bunch of headless chickens?"

* * *

"So, why do you want to help us all of a sudden?" Naruko asked, not even trying to hide the suspicion in her voice. She had learned not to trust Shikamaru thus far because he hadn't gotten off his lazy ass to help anyone yet. 

"I'm tired of that... _woman_ insulting me." Shikamaru scoffed, his brow furrowing in a thoughtful frown as he focused his attention on a group of ants trying desperately to overcome a much larger caterpillar. "It's more troublesome than anything else, and it's getting on my nerves."

"That's why you want to do this?" The blonde girl questioned in return, one delicate eyebrow arched in surprise.

"Yeah. She's a Jounin, and we're just rookie Genin. If we work together, we _might_ be able to beat her." He stressed the word 'might' heavily and as if remembering his one true goal in life, he corrected himself. "...That and I want to go back to watching clouds."

"D-do you really t-think we can beat her, Shikamaru-san?" Hinata swivelled her head from side to side, her eyes darting restlessly.

"No, not really." The boy dead-panned.

"Good enough for me!" Naruko crouched next to Shikamaru and, grinning broadly, gave the boy a friendly/harsh, slap on the back. "How about you, Hinata-chan?" She asked, turning to her friend for confirmation. Which she received, in the way of a frightened nod.

Grimacing, Shikamaru steadied himself. The girl had nearly dislodged him from his precarious perch. It wouldn't do to tumble down the considerable height the trio found themselves on currently. Falling from a broad tree trunk some thirty feet into the air would make you likely to break the majority of your bones on impact.

He forced Naruko's predictable and excited whispered banter to the background as he tried to relax. Carefully, he placed the tips of his thumbs and index fingers against their counterparts and closed his eyes.

He needed to plan this carefully.

* * *

"Now lessee..." Anko hummed thoughtfully, drumming her fingers on the insides of her thighs as she sat on the forest floor, enjoying a brief break before she would resume her search of her prey. "Where is that little twerp..." 

It surprised her quite a bit that she hadn't been able to find the Nara child yet. Then again, his father; Nara Shikato, was lauded as an expert in stealth and camouflage. No doubt he would have passed some of his invaluable expertise to his son.

'Bastards.'

Still, Anko guessed she would be able to find Shikamaru within fifteen minutes without playing around. Then again, where was the fun in that? 'All work and no play, makes super-cute Anko-chan a dull girl!' She thought to herself with a nod.

Ah, the memories of all those missions where she would spend hours and hours hunting her targets like frightened rabbits still put a smile on her face. "Nothing like a good assassination to put your mind at ease", was a saying she always held dear.

Shikamaru was a boring and uncaring young fellow. So, how to make him truly afraid?

Preferably, so afraid that he'd be screaming and running like a little girl to his mother while he wet his pants. Anko balanced her chin on her hands and frowned. She did have a jutsu in her arsenal that made the victim's deepest fear come to life via Genjutsu, but then again The effects _were_ rather long-term, and possibly life-long trauma would be inflicted.

'Better not use that...' Anko cocked her head, making her cheek rest on her hands instead. 'The old man would surely kill me for that.'

He probably would, too. Contrary to what Shikamaru was steadily taking to heart, there was _indeed_ a law that prohibited the use of traumatizing, severe injury-inducing and/or lethal techniques or training methods on their assigned (future) students.

"Damn party-pooper!" She grumbled ruefully.

It was all relative anyway though, wasn't it? Anko certainly didn't consider a lot of things life-threatening like most people did. But of course, the Third wouldn't like to see one of his precious villagers reduced to a drooling vegetable; forced to waste away the rest of his years in a nuthouse with some fellow overly saliva-enthusiastic companions.

Anko could nearly cry at the thought of all the fun she missed out on due to these wimpy things called "morals" and "decency".

"Bah." With renewed vigour, the Jounin picked herself up from the leaf-littered ground and patted her posterior in a rather unladylike fashion to make sure she didn't take along any unwanted leafy hitchhikers.

'I can't scare him half to death, but at least I can beat him up a little bit!' And with that pleasant thought to warm her heart comfortably, Anko continued on her search with a noticeable spring in her step.

* * *

Shikamaru stalked through the suspiciously silent forest as quickly as he could. The back of his neck prickled and set him on edge. Deep down, he knew that Anko was looking for him. 

Despite all his planning, and knowing that he had put his absolute all in making sure they had the best probability of making it through this absolute hellish test, Shikamaru couldn't suppress the shudder that ran up his spine when the new number one annoyance of his life appeared without warning from behind one of the many trees surrounding him.

"'Ello my pretty!" The woman waved cheerily and smiled broadly, and proceeded to rub her hands together with absolute relish. "How about you and me have a little fun?" She added with a wink.

Shikamaru froze, then groaned as he barely got his arms up to block the incoming punch sent his way. The speed of Mitarashi Anko's movements were quite literally taking his breath away. And as he watched her rebound backwards, casually taking the measure of him, he would hazard the guess she was dancing. She eerily kept shaking her hips from side to side in any case.

'She would, just to spite me.'

He wasn't far off anyway…

Anko grinned at the boy. Secretly, she applauded his efforts. But when another meaty slap of her fist hitting his forearm rang in her ears, she began to wonder how long he could keep this up.

'Was he holding back before?' She mused, delivering a round-house kick that sent the Genin skidding sideways. He had given in after the first punch the first time she, er… _sparred_ with him.

"Troublesome…" He muttered.

Anko smiled what she thought was a disarming smile as he glared at her while wringing his already sore arms. To him, it seemed nothing other than a sneer. Not that he cared though, he didn't really care about such things…

Really!

…well, okay. Maybe just a little…

Cocking her head slightly, as if sensing something he didn't, Anko's smile widened considerably. "So where are your reinforcements, Pineapple-head?"

Make that a whole lot. Damn, that woman was annoying!

He knew then that now would be a good time to start the plan. "GO!" He screamed.

And right on cue, a plethora of wild hoots and howls, strangely reminiscent of rabid wolves, resounded above their heads.

"Ah." Anko rubbed the underside of her nose and sniffed, casually grabbing a handful of shuriken from her weapon pouch. "Now the real fun begins."

With practised ease, she flicked the metal stars into the veritable rain of Naruko's that appeared from out of the treetops. A dozen distant pops and pained grunts betrayed the demise of several of the clones. Still, the rain continued to fall, along with a rising crescendo of the loud cries that Naruko was always eager to produce.

Anko performed a dazzling back flip as around twenty of overzealous blonde's thudded onto the ground. One, perhaps not the brightest of the lot, had landed somewhat unluckily and disappeared with the telltale sound of a muffled explosion.

Shikamaru allowed himself the brief gesture of frustration by slapping his forehead with an open palm. No matter how powerful Naruko might want to prove herself by performing a Jounin-level jutsu, she would indubitably prove herself a moron by screwing up _somehow_. And if his mother hadn't raised him properly, read; didn't literally threaten to bash is skull in if he dared curse, he would have uttered some colourful language now…

Naruko had shrugged off the loss of the copy of herself though, and raised an erect and somewhat threatening finger towards her sister. "You're going down!"

Snorting, the older woman waved the threat away.

Instead of rambling on though, and surprising her sister with that fact, Naruko grinned impossibly wide, raising her finger even higher so it now pointed at the sky. "Clones, attack!"

Shikamaru shook his head. Couldn't the over-energized blonde act normally for one second?

"Yaaaah! Whooo!"

'Oh kami-sama…'

Nope, guess she couldn't. Inevitably, that trait would be handed down to the duplicates of herself.

Shikamaru watched, now slightly amused, as the clones charged the sole Jounin in a headlong rush. He counted twelve clones still left, save the Naruko who directed her troops imperiously. Surely Anko would have some sort of trouble with them.

The next six seconds would prove how very wrong he really was.

Anko had waited until the last moment, when the first two had approached her and threw their ineffective punches. Ineffective because Anko merely ducked, before slamming her own fists in their bellies. The clones looked surprised before they exploded in a cloud of smoke. Still, the tide of blonde, blue and grey did not slow. The second set jumped forward, one aiming a kick as if trying to punt a football across a vast field, the other jumped up, feet first, as she had assumed Anko would try to dodge that by jumping up as well.

The clone thought wrong.

Anko launched her own kick at the first one who reached her, sending the bunshin flying backwards and thudding back-first into a nearby tree. Before that one's smoke had a chance to dissipate, the other joined in its doom in a similar fashion. The second clone let out a yelp as Anko grabbed her ankles in a fluid movement. Not pausing for a second, Anko completed her spin and literally used the clone as if she were handling an axe, launching it with the force of a bullet train into the tree-trunk behind her.

The remaining eight clones did falter in their charge then. Seeing several of your identical copies being dispatched of so easily would have that effect on anyone. Anko would not grant them such a reprieve. With a look so predatory that it made the clones shiver, she dashed towards them in a burst of unbelievable speed.

Shikamaru winced each time with every respective demise. The other seemingly more gruesome than the next.

Naruko, her smug smile having disappeared entirely, lifted her hands in a futile fashion. Anko was already behind her, grabbing her arms and twisting them behind her back.

"I know you're not the real one." Anko whispered into her ear.

The clone did not get the time to respond. It exploded into smoke as her face was mashed into the dirt and her neck was snapped brutally by the force of the impact.

Anko rose again to her feet, wrapping her arms around her waist, literally shivering with delight. "Mmmm, that _was_ fun."

Shikamaru wouldn't call killing copies of your own sibling fun though… In fact, he knew that the next stage could not be delayed any longer.

"Alright, form up!" He shouted.

Naruko and Hinata appeared from the greenery behind him. Both halting until they stood on either side, and remained silent.

Anko looked at her wayward students and uncrossed her hands from around her waist. She gave them them a fiendish smile and reached inside of her coat.

Shikamaru noticed, and thought that _now_ would be a good time to begin the plan.

"GO!" He screamed again. Naruko and Hinata became fast blurs beside him. He was already going through the hand seals before Anko calmly pulled a...

Dango stick from her pocket!

"I'm not stupid Nara..." Anko stated flatly as she threw the surprisingly sharp stick at Hinata.

It was too fast to see. A blur of wood. Hinata took it in the shoulder and disappeared in a poof of smoke. Naruko's Kage Bunshin dissipated.

"…And I'm not that stupid either, Naruko." the Jounin raised a hand and made a one-handed seal. Something ruffled and slithered underneath her shirt sleeve and Anko abruptly called out: "Senei Jashuu!" (Hidden Shadow Snake Hand)

Shikamaru watched in horror as four long, coiling and interweaving dark emerald serpents erupted out of Anko's sleeve and shot into the tree to her left. All he heard was a painful yelp, and Anko casually tugged her hand to the right. Naruko fell out of the tree, ensnared by the snakes coiled around her feet, and slammed into the ground with a bone-cracking crash.

"Owie..." she whispered.

Naruko didn't get up. Anko shot Shikamaru a hooded, vaguely dark look and smiled from ear to ear.

Shikamaru returned her smile as the Naruko clone she had caught exploded in a puff of smoke, and as the real Naruko came tumbling down from the tree right above her sister, he could only watch in anticipation.

"Good job Shikamaru-san." was all Anko let fly from her lips before she rolled to her side and avoided her sister's rushing knee. She was fluid and graceful as she moved. The snakes became insubstantial darkness flowing out from her sleeve and covering her trail in shadows.

Shikamaru saw his chance. He completed his family's jutsu, still one hand-symbol incomplete since the start of the battle, and whispered out the name; "Kagemane no Jutsu!". (Shadow Bind Technique) The shadows literally lunged forward as dusky coloured, two dimensional hands rocketing straight towards Anko…

"Fu-!"

Shikamaru strained to keep the obviously powerful woman at bay. The jutsu in itself was almost useless if the opponent was far stronger than the user, and Anko was really, _really_ strong. He bit his lip just as Naruko rose up and lunged towards her sister.

Her fist rose and connected. Anko's face went to the side with a crack.

"GOT YA!" Naruko cried happily.

Shikamaru smiled. They had passed, finally. They had landed one hit on their instructor. Finish. End. Done and over. He could go watch clouds now. Surely the hit meant no more harrowing escapes, it would mean they had outsmarted their teacher and they would not have to be chased around by her anymore.

'Better signal...'

And then Anko's shadow clone vanished into thin air, and Shikamaru found himself flying up, and up and up.

"Juuryoku Fuuin: Sakasa." (Gravity Seal: Inversion) Anko stated flatly from somewhere behind the pony-tailed Genin. Shikamaru was about to turn and activate his clan's jutsu once more; but realized that he was suddenly floating in mid-air.

Hang on...

"What the hell is this! Get me down from here, now!" He struggled in the air and looked to Naruko for help. She was gawking, stunned at the fact that her sister had such a cool jutsu in her arsenal and hadn't taught her it. Suddenly, Anko was behind her sister - moving again in that strange mixture of both speed and fluidity - and soon had Naruko in a similar seal that sent his companion slamming into the dirt.

"Juuryoku Fuuin." (Gravity Seal) Anko smiled stupidly - her eyes turning into happy curves. Neither Naruko nor Shikamaru saw the small twinge of pain that crossed her face. Holding both seals at the same time caused a strain, even on her, and if she didn't end it quick, her students might actually get the drop on her.

Naruko struggled, flailing her arms and legs and trying to push herself off the ground to no avail. She was quite stuck, and Anko gloated over her little sister as she continued to try – and fail, to get up.

"Had enough yet?" Anko edged on Naruko with a fierce, haughty smirk. Shikamaru looked to the two while floating upside down. The situation seemed hopeless. ( Read: Shikamaru couldn't wrap his head around the physics defying seal, yet, and hadn't thought of a plan.) Shikamaru still couldn't believe that the Gravity Seal seemed to keep him in place the entire time. What kind of jutsu was that to use on a test?

He voiced his anger. "How are you allowed to use such a high levelled skill on us? You know we have no way to counter this!"

Anko stopped making funny faces at her sister just long enough to look at Shikamaru. "...Well. Because I can, actually. Shinobi should be prepared for anything - even opponents who seem impossible to defeat." She gave him a wink, and Shikamaru frowned.

"That's BULLSHIT!" Naruko looked up at Anko, who only raised a slender eyebrow.

"Eh? Whaddaya mean!"

"There is no one stronger than the three of us put together, we're gonna kick your ass!" Naruko shouted, and, at the signal – first part anyway, a kunai whizzed from the treetops and hit the flash-bang laden bunshin that was Nara Shikamaru.

The expertly made shadow clone exploded in a magnificent brilliance that lit up the forest for miles. The sun's brightness manifested itself on the Earth's ground for seconds, and, when the brightness faded, Anko stood - her position totally rigid and defensive - with one foot on top of her sister's back. She tried to blink away the pain in her eyes and found that she was temporarily blind.

The foot came off, the seal faded, and Naruko stood up and smiled at her frozen sister. She laughed happily and waved to Shikamaru (who had also been hiding in the same tree Anko had leaned against) and gave him a V for victory. The Nin leapt out of the tree and caused Anko to try and mimic him on the ground.

Shikamaru landed on his feet, trembled once as he stood, and Naruko gave him a worried look.

"What's wrong pineapple head!" She sounded genuinely worried.

Shikamaru bit his lip and tried to keep his hold on Anko perfect. "It's nothing, really. Just that it's really hard to hold her still. Just hit her and get it over with soon, will ya?"

Anko smiled, and no one caught it.

"Yes master..." Naruko droned, sticking out her tongue – and began a languid trot forward, cracking her knuckles one by one. This was going to be too easy. Big sis had nowhere to go. She was trapped and Shika-kun had her immobilized.

As she reached Anko, she smiled, whispered a "We win...", reared back for a punch, and...

...And found that Anko had already delivered a severe, gut-wrenching and stomach churning blow to her stomach with her somehow freed knee seconds before Naruko could even blink and feel the pain. The blow resounded like a slap; loud and echoing and painful, and Naruko could feel her insides bursting. Her sister had hit her with chakra!

"Your friend needs to work on his shadow skills more - he can barely hold anyone back for long. Maybe not even at all... That could get you killed someday sis. And Hinata listens to orders too well. She should be out here, stopping something like _this_ from happening. Learn that the second time around." Anko whispered into her little sister's ear as Naruko buckled and hit the ground with her knees - holding her stomach with both arms and looking down as if not believing this had happened.

Naruko coughed harshly and looked up to her big sister with pearly droplets beginning to bead on her eyes. She couldn't believe that anything could hurt so bad. She couldn't believe that Anko was taking this test so seriously. Now, as she felt like vomiting up a years worth of ramen and dango, she wanted to hurt her sister even worse. She wanted to get up and hit her so hard that she couldn't get back up and do anything about it.

And when all that was said and done. When the world returned once again to its normal revolutions, a whisper of fire inside of her mind agreed, and Naruko finally realized something.

Anko had _really_ fucking _hurt_ her.

"Sorry kiddo, it's how these things go."

Naruko felt utterly betrayed, and knew for certain that her sister wasn't playing around anymore. Naruko fell back onto the ground still holding her stomach. The pain knocked her more than breathless. She couldn't breathe, and was soon fighting back the greedy, black spikes of unconsciousness at the edges of her vision.

Before Anko's fingertips gently ghosted over Naruko's eyelids and closed them, Naruko managed a resentful whisper before falling into oblivion.

"You... _bitch_..."

Anko stood back up and looked to the shocked Shikamaru. Droplets lingered on the corner of her eyes. She wiped them away hurriedly, and pointed to the unmoving shadow-user.

"You're going to get your subordinates killed if you use them like pawns, _boy_. I'm going to make you regret having to make me lay a hand on my sister."

Anko burst forth in a run with such speed, that it made the background seem like a complex, interwoven tapestry of blurred greenery to her. Shikamaru had no time to react. He reached behind his back and pulled out a kunai.

The Jounin leapt at the last second and brought her heel down on his guarding kunai. The armored sole of her sandal took the full impact of the blow. Shikamaru barely dodged away in time as Anko landed and almost caught the side of his head with a full-roundhouse to the face.

'Kami! This woman is trying to kill me!'

"Remember! Opponents will be faster and stronger than you! Compensate for it!" Her fists came in faster than Shikamaru could count, and he felt the winds and the light taps of her fingertips against his chest and face.

Shikamaru wove around the incoming blows the best he could, all the while keeping

his arms up in a cross-over position to shield himself. He knew that Anko could have already had him down and out in a second, but she was playing with him. Just like he predicted she would.

The woman was teaching them while beating them. She was trying to instil proper Shinobi teachings into them with violence so that they would stay with them forever and never be forgotten.

Shikamaru ducked over a backwards spinning heel-strike and rolled backwards. He saw Naruko stir, and shouted out "We are divided, but we are still one!"

In the middle of the battle, as Anko took out four throwing knives with deadly grace, he began the hand symbols for another Kagemane. Despite the fact that his arms and shoulders would be covered in gashes in a few moments, Shikamaru had to follow through and make an opening for Hinata...

Said sapphire-haired female burst from the foliage with a speed and bird-like grace that Shikamaru had never seen the girl hint at. Arms thrust behind her, body extended forward - Hinata was like a true Shinobi full of speed and liquid manoeuvrability that normal humans just didn't have. The girl shouted as she leapt and twisted in mid-air.

Anko looked up and frowned, the corner of her left eye twitching in volatile anger. She was temporarily caught in the damned _Kagemane_, AGAIN!

"Aren't you EVER GOING TO LEARN!"

This time though, Anko couldn't move when she tried to shake off the jutsu. Shikamaru was using every ounce of chakra and willpower he possessed to keep her glued to the spot and Hinata was coming down too fast to be good.

Hinata completed her mid-air twist and landed right behind Anko. She looked from Shikamaru to Naruko and caught the silent command. With the same speed of before, Hinata ran towards her unconscious friend and totally forgot about Anko.

'Good. At least they know that taking care of a comrade is better than completing a mission.'

What Anko said, though, was totally different from what she was thinking. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU COULD'VE FINISHED THE MISSION AND GRADUATED!"

"We take care of our own. Just because you have all of this power, and because you want to beat us senseless with it, Mitirashi-sensei, doesn't mean that we won't fight back. As soon as Hinata is done patching up Naruko, you're going to have to deal with all three of us at the same time." The Nara child had some sort of affection in his voice now. However, to Anko it just sounded like he simply loved it when his plans began to come together.

"Ever tried fighting three hormone and adrenaline crazed teens at the same time?" Mischief shone behind the the eyes of the normally laconic boy. "Trust me... it won't be fun."

Behind Anko, Hinata looked down to her friend and gently tried to shake her awake. "Naruko-chan...?"

The blonde murmured something incoherent and Hinata prodded her again. "Naruko-chan... I need you to open your mouth. P-please?"

She did so without complaint, and Hinata quickly popped a solider pill into Naruko's mouth. "Now, can you s-swallow it?"

Naruko shook her head, 'no'.

Hinata blushed a fiery, raging red as she realized what she had to do. She reached inside of Naruko's mouth and grasped the pill, then, she put it in her own mouth and chewed. Once it was made into a fine, almost gritty, wet powder, Hinata looked down to her semi-conscious friend and thought frantically about the course of action she would have to take. 'Please don't kill me because we need you to finish this...'

Naruko lay there, half-dead, and watched with a sort of amused interest as Hinata kissed her to give her the powdered up soldier pill. Inside, she felt extreme pride for her friend... But, she felt kind of creepy, too. Wasn't it wrong to kiss girls?

The blonde felt life flow back into her limps, but still, they refused to move. Anko must have done something to completely numb her body with that hit. When Hinata saw this, she simply told her to lay there and rest, still with that cherry-red face of hers.

Hinata looked over to Shikamaru and waved. Naruko was okay. Shikamaru sighed and went back to trying to keep Anko perfectly caged. "Okay now, Hinata, come over here and hit her so we can pass this damn test and go home!"

Anko gave a derisive snort of laughter. "You're going trust little miss blue-head over there to hit me? You can barely keep me locked up!"

Shikamaru gave Anko a dark look, and took a step forward.

Anko took two, and again, proved that the Kagemane was pretty much useless when it came to using it on someone stronger than the user was.

Hinata was in her sights, this time. The Nara boy was a one-hit pony whose jutsu's she could walk right out of. Hinata was a Hyuuga. She could pose a threat and that meant that she had to know that she was a threat first.

Anko reached the startled female before Shikamaru even registered what had happened. She, while still running, reached forward with two fingers and whispered one of her more useful techniques again. "Senei Jashuu!"

Like before, The snakes flew from out of the sleeve of her coat like rushing tendrils of green scales. They hissed and bit and flew, intermixing with one another as they travelled to the surprised Hyuuga heiress. Hinata looked back down to Naruko and then to the approaching snakes. Time slowed down. What was more important? Let the snakes hit her, or let them miss and hit the unconscious Naruko?

Uncharacteristic steel filled her eyes and chakra danced on her fingertips. Hinata twirled and danced and wove between the charging serpents like liquid fire. Wherever she touched, a snake would hiss briefly and disappear. She moved closer and closer to Anko, fingers gliding over scales all the while, and finally, their destructive sensei was upon her.

"I won't let you hurt Naruko again!" Hinata cried, dainty fists and fingertips flying with speed and accuracy all Hyuuga inherently possessed. Every countered and deflected blow sounded like a miniature bomb going off. Every strike Anko landed was a languid passing of fingertips that only made Hinata even angrier.

For all she was worth, the girl still couldn't land a hit!

"You need to learn that you are strong. Look at yourself for strength, and then, come back and see me. If you can promise me that you will always fight like this then you pass." Anko stated almost melodiously as she pushed away another one of Hinata spearing finger stabs.

Hinata squared herself and one of the most intricate motions of blows came thereafter. She was not going to be toyed with. Anko's punch was deflected midway through as Hinata knocked her wrist aside and stabbed forward with two glowing fingertips. At this, Anko brought down her hand and swatted that blow away - only to have Hinata turn on her heel and try to slam her across the neck with her entire forearm in a spinning arm slam.

Anko ducked beneath the blow and decided to end this. If she kept this up the Hyuuga girl might carelessly injure herself, or even hurt Anko by misuse of the Jyuuken. The places she was aiming at could be lethal if severed.

"Nighty night blue jay. Juuryoku Fuuin: Toumitsu Kansei!" (Gravity Seal: Molasses Pitfall)

The seal flared to life directly underneath Hinata. She slowed to a slugs pace of movement and would have been comical to watch in any other situation.

The Jounin stood up just as Hinata arm whistled overhead and struck the girl on the back of the neck, knocking her out yet again. The girl crumbled to the ground in a heap and groaned in pain.

Anko was getting tired of this. Maybe these kids had had enough too?

"Listen... I-"

"Listen to THIS!" Shikamaru came charging from behind her and leapt as if to tackle her. Anko, begrudgingly, back-flipped over the teen and caught him by the leg. She yanked and he fell to the ground as unceremoniously as possible.

Shikamaru groaned into the dirt. His first plan lay in shambles and their third contingency might not work anymore. It seemed that Anko would now stop nothing short of rending the flesh from his bones and breaking his brittle defences just for trying to attack her.

"Now listen, mister leader man. I'm going to tell you something so listen up good, _m'kay_?" Anko gave Shikamaru's leg a tight twist the wrong way and the boy yelped in pain. "Using the same jutsu over and over again in the same way is a stupid, idiotic thing to do. True that sometimes it can work flawlessly; but, if a jutsu fails once, it's bound to fail again. Use that big brain of yours and do something _else_ for once!"

Shikamaru smirked and twisted over so fast that the popping of his leg out of its socket was nonexistent. "Better?" Shikamaru asked icily as he righted himself. He cringed as he came face to face with Anko - who only looked at him in shocked disgust - and began to limp away.

Anko let the misguided boy move away. He may have had succeeded in escaping her hold just then, but only truly succeeded in grossing her out. Who knew that the members of the Nara clan had such a high tolerance for pain?

Hey, just because she had a strange fascination with assassinations, didn't mean she actually enjoyed people wringing their limbs out of their respective joints…

"So that's it right? We all just go back to the freaking academy again, right?"

Just as he reached Naruko and began to set his leg back in place, Hinata managed to crawl over to him. He placed a hand on Hinata's shoulder, gently squeezing it, and nudged Naruko with the foot of his uninjured leg. Shikamaru focused again on Anko, only after that and with near unsettling stoicism, he awaited his judgment that the violent female might pass on to them.

Anko began to trot forward and was about to tell them the meaning of this practice when _fearless leader_ Shikamaru reached into Naruko's kunai pouch and proceeded to throw five kunai at her.

"Well, I WON'T LET THAT HAPPEN!"

'Don't these kids ever give up!' Anko screamed in her mind. 'And wasn't he the kid who wanted to give up in the first place!'

Due to the angle and speed at which they had been thrown, the kunai whizzed by Anko's ear and spanked off the bark of the tree her clone had been sitting on in a dangerous ricochet. They then proceeded to bounce off two other trees, and when they thunked into the ground before her, Anko sighed.

"Well... that was pointless." She whispered to herself, and despite herself, a grin started to appear on her face. When her eyes stopped tracing the path of the kunai, she looked to the spot where the team had been and found... nothing.

'Wait...' She turned around and looked at the five kunai stuck in the ground.

And as she took a closer look at the weaponry, the confident smirk that framed Anko's features so well, died down slowly.

"Son of a..."

That was the last she uttered, before the explosive tags, wrapped carefully around the handles, burned fitfully.She tried to move, really, but found that time was against her as a massive explosion ripped through the trees and sent debris every which way as it rode on the shockwave of the blast.

"Boom." Shikamaru, thoroughly beaten, bruised and bloodied, stated with something akin to pride in his voice.

When the inconceivable amount of decibels that the explosion produced died down to a faint ringing in their ears, Naruko, suddenly almost healed and vibrant, let out a whoop of excitement. "Hah! You rock, Shikamaru!"

"Yeah, yeah" Despite his lacklustre response, the girls could see a smile tugging at the boy's lips.

With another joyous cry, Naruko single-handedly threw herself onto the pony-tailed male in a make-shift doggy pile. Hinata, for the very first time that day, allowed herself a genuine smile at the sight.

"YOU GUYS!"

Uh-oh.

The blue-haired girl pointed suddenly at the clearing smoke, and the source of the incensed roar. Naruko and Shikamaru shifted their heads as well, unable to hide their fears.

The trio screamed as they recognized the figure outlined in the haze.

"AAAAAAH!"

What proceeded to happen could only be classified as a massacre without any deaths.

* * *

Anko slowly moved towards the three, patting her singed clothing down with all the grace she could muster. "You little shits! What the hell gives you the big idea of trying to blow me up!" 

"Well, you said we were allowed to do anything to prevent you from capturing us." Shikamaru supplied helpfully with a scowl, but a kunai suddenly embedded into the log, just a few centimetres above his head, quickly shut him up.

"Silence, fool!" Anko roared then waved her hands at her attire frantically. "Damnit, and I just had this coat cleaned!"

"No you didn't." Naruko stated calmly, but the fear of impending fratricide (1), silenced her just as quickly as the boy tied up next to her.

"That's not the point!" Anko growled angrily. Her fists clenched and unclenched, for she was eager to throttle someone right about now. However, she decided on taking a deep breath, and steadied herself

...slightly...

What was it with her little sister and contradicting her all the time lately anyway?

"If I get a blister on my beautiful, soft skin, I'm going to kill you guys!"

The trio - and thanking their bonds at that time for holding them up - nearly face-vaulted as the true reason of her anger was revealed.

"What are you talking about! Be serious!" Shikamaru shouted. The deep unfathomable lagoon that was his patience was rapidly being drained. He could already picture the Mitarashi siblings standing next to it with the plug and their infuriating grins.

All that work and they were still caught.

On his left, Hinata was just about ready to soil herself. Scenes of doom and destruction flashed across her mind. Not about the impending fail itself, but for the consequences it would have at home. What would her father say?

Naruko glared at her sister. "Yeah, hurry up and untie us, damnit!"

"Ohohohoho..." Anko covered her mouth as she let out a dramatic laugh, staring down at the three haughtily. "No way in hell! I'm going to have some fun first before I let you go."

Shikamaru didn't like the way her chocolate-brown eyes sparkled with that statement .

Unconsciously mirroring his thought audibly was Hinata; letting out a series of half-squeaked whimpers.

"You don't scare me!" Naruko stated gruffly, jutting out her lower lip and lifting her chin.

Quite naturally of course, Shikamaru stared at her as if she had just proclaimed herself Queen of the Universe with all accompanying fanfare. The only thing missing were the brass trumpets sounding a strange, mutilated version of the Konoha anthem.

"I've lived with her for six years. I can take anything she can dish out!" She explained, mistakenly taking the boy's expression as one of genuine confusion. "And more!" Naruko added after noticing the steady rise of Anko's eyebrow.

Anko grinned impossibly wide at this. "Oh? Is that so?"

Her little sister harrumphed, not dignifying the question with an answer.

Anko walked to Naruko and began to untie her. She then proceeded to untie Hinata and had the two face her. Anko gave them a smirk and watched both the girls share a puzzled expression.

"Wha...?" Naruko asked, still unbelieving. She was about to lunge towards her sister and call Hinata to do the same when Anko held a hand up.

"Naruko, tell me right now. Could you ever kill Hinata?"

Naruko looked surprised, to say the least. "What are you talking...?"

"If she became a missing-nin, or if you were given a specific order to kill her, could you do so?" Anko asked again, this time her voice had no emotion. Her eyes held no sympathy.

"No way! Hinata would never do something like that!" Naruko looked to her friend, who only blushed and fidgeted where she stood. Where was Anko going with this?

No one saw Anko fly through the series of hand seals that she did. They did, however, hear her shout. "Juuryoku Fuuin!" The vermillion outline of the seal appeared underneath Naruko's feet. Anko looked towards Hinata and smiled evilly. "Higamigokoro no Jutsu!" (Warped Mind Technique) She still continued. "Hiun Setzuzoku no Jutsu!" (Fate Connection Technique)

The trio of techniques followed each other too quickly, and suddenly Naruko felt as if she had gained nine-hundred pounds. She slammed into the ground for the umpteenth time that day with a scream of frustration. This jutsu was beginning to wear on her nerves!

However, when Naruko tried to push herself up again, strangely, she found out that she could, and did so with gusto. She hopped on her feet, fists raised and ready. Now where was her sister's face!

As she looked around though, the scene that greeted her was, with lack of proper words; horrifying.

Hinata stood next to Shikamaru, a kunai held up and its tip pressed directly to his jugular, and Anko seemed to have disappeared. Naruko blinked disbelievingly.

What was happening!

"Hinata?"

Hinata made no response, and the kunai pressed a bit harder.

"HINATA! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!"

Shikamaru swallowed unconsciously and managed a strangled whisper. "She's under some sort of mind-control, Naruko! Anko did some weird jutsu that linked all of our minds together and took control of Hinata's! Unless you do something fast she'll really kill me!"

Naruko's face went blank. Every emotion, childish or not, vanished. This was... This was _too much_. She had to decide between either hurting her best friend or having her kill Shikamaru in one misguided blow...

The decision seemed easy, didn't it? Stop Hinata. Stop her from hurting Shikamaru and somehow restrain her. But could Naruko even do that? Could she bring herself to knocking out her best friend and tying her up? Or even worse...

The kunai pressed harder and a pinprick of blood began to form on its edge.

'Damn. What do I do!' Naruko bit her lip. She couldn't ask Anko for help on this one. The responsibility rested on her shoulders alone.

The kunai drew back, Hinata faltered for a moment and Naruko knew what she had to do in a millisecond.

"HINATA, I'M SORRY!" She yelled, her feet already taking her across the ground faster than she had ever ran before. The kunai came down and changed directions. It was aiming towards Hinata's heart now, and Naruko had a split second to react. She definitively couldn't reach her in time.

"KAGE BUSHIN NO JUTSU!" Without thinking, she resorted to the only skill she thought would be of any use.

The shadow clone exploded into life right beside Naruko, running at the same speed she was. They both looked at each other, steel in their sapphire eyes, and took each others hand. The clone swung around and Naruko found herself flying forward twice as fast as she had been running before.

Naruko hit Hinata like a cannonball. They both went tumbling in a mess of legs and arms and one suddenly flying kunai. The kunai embedded itself directly above Anko's head in the tree she was watching everything happen in. She deadpanned as the girls came to a stop.

'Definitely time to stop messing with their heads.'

* * *

All Naruko heard was clapping. Soft, delicate, sibilant clapping echoing in her ear. The blood rushed out of her head. She took in everything that was happening a scene at a time. 

She was straddling Hinata's waist, a kunai poised high and the girls wrists clenched in one hand. Shikamaru hung limp by from the log, unmarred except for the bead of blood falling down his neck.

Anko waltzed into the clearing, still clapping, and beamed at her younger sister.

"Good job, sis. You placed the needs of the many before the needs of the few. _And_ you managed to save everyone. I think I will buy you that jacket you've been wanting." Anko patted her sister on the head.

The blonde only nodded in half-recognition of what she had just done. She was too tired, she wanted this horrible day to end. She wanted…

Then something seemed to stretch too far, and snapped inside of her. Just like it had earlier that day…

She would never want to place anyone in such a position. _Ever_. Anko was cruel to make children make such harsh decisions. Of course, the blonde didn't exactly think that. Rather, her mind was an inferno of fiery, tempestuous reds and raging, black malice.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Naruko stood up in a blur of movement. Her eyes blazed crimson. Hatred flittered behind her iris like a raging hurricane held back by the smallest of walls.

Anko backed away, slowly, and for the first time in her life, she knew fear of her little sister.

"YOU MADE ME HURT MY BEST FRIEND! YOU ALMOST MADE HER KILL SOMEONE!"

Naruko's fury only grew as she heard the soft sobs of Hinata beneath her.

Anko waved her hands in a placating manner and suddenly smiled a wide, goofy smile. Naruko looked started, to say the least. The rage seemed to ease out of her mind like trickling water. Her sister never smiled like that!

"Guess what kiddo, you and your team pass."

* * *

Morino Ibiki was less than pleased. He considered himself a nice guy, he really did, but when they asked him to interrogate a weakling like the traitor Mizuki, he tended to get a little upset. 

He had barely applied the thumbscrews and branding irons before the snivelling little twerp broke down into tears and spilled everything, begging for mercy.

Dang it, he had really wanted to test out that knew knife set that Anko had bought for him for his last birthday.

Regardless, the information his impromptu confession had yielded, was very... _interesting_.

As he left the damp and dark room that the traitor was assigned to, he ignored the pitiful sobs that Mizuki produced, instead he mulled over the possibly implications the news might have.

Ibiki wrung his gloved hands ruefully before dragging one across his face slowly and used the other to slam the door shut behind him. His assistants, if you could call them that, stood before him, their eyes eager and sparkling. Though one of them tried to hide it as best he could.

"Idiots…" He grumbled.

Kutsu and Kushi. (2) Possibly even scarier than Morino Ibiki himself, and without even trying. They were twins, brother and sister. Both had the same deceptively innocent face, one that someone wouldn't even notice in a milling crowd. Their horrible grins, however, would be etched forever on the minds of a large number of the unlucky people who had been sent here, down to the dungeons of Konoha.

Kushi, the sister, bounced on her feet. "What did you find out, Ibiki-sama?"

Her brother, Kutsu, was scowling. He was still angry about the fact he didn't get to participate.

Ibiki shouldered past them. "Don't you two have something better to do?" He asked. "Like cleaning up that blood from the guy you were a bit too enthusiastic on yesterday?"

"Mou… We already did that!" Kushi whined.

Still not pausing in his stride, Ibiki waved her off. "Clean the other cells then!" He said loudly before disappearing up the long winding stairs that led up to the surface.

Kushi, fingering her shoulder-length, black hair scowled as well, mimicking her brother perfectly. Then, out of the blue, something hit her.

"Hey, Kutsu!" She nudged her sibling's shoulder, a broad grin nearly splaying her face in two.

"What?" He growled, already turning to one of the cells to dutifully clean it.

"Ibiki-sama did say we needed to clean the _other_ cells…" She began, eyes sparkling once more.

"Yes…" Her brother said slowly. "Which _we_ are going to do before he gets back."

"Yeah, yeah, but listen!" She held up a silencing finger. "We'll need to clean Mizuki-san's cell, too."

An understanding smile formed on his face, and he nodded conspiratorially. "Ibiki-sama was finished rather quick…"

"Who knows what he might have done…"

"The room might be very, _very _dirty…"

"And it could take a _long_ time to clean…"

The twins were silent for a moment, and then as one they bolted to the room that contained all of the… _tools_ of their trade.

"We'd better make sure!"

* * *

_A/N:_

_**1: Fratricide: **The act of murdering your own brother or sister._

_**2: Kutsu and Kushi: **The two names are plays on the words pain and agony, respectively. (Kutsuu and Kushin). The twins are not real characters out of Naruto. Either the manga or the anime._

_**The techniques:**_

_**Juuryoku Fuuin:** Gravity Seal._

_The basic idea behind the Gravity Seals is that they are simply inscribed on whatever platform available and activated with a simple hand-seal. The standard Gravity Seal makes a target unable to move, pinning him/her to the ground by intensifying the gravity by however much needed. The power can be regulated by the user._

_**Juuryoku Fuuin: Sakasa:** Gravity Seal: Inversion._

_This seal makes it possible to invert gravity in a specific spot, again, rendering the target unable to move forwards, instead suspending him/her in mid-air. The target is able to perform their own techniques though, so aside from the confusion this seal creates, it isn't as useful as the standard Gravity Seal._

_**Juuryoku Fuuin: Toumitsu Kansei:** Gravity Seal: Molasses Pitfall._

_This seal is similar to the standard seal, but requires less power. You know how hard it is to try and run through water that's up to your chest? This seal is like that, slowing the movements of the target in order to buy time to hinder his/her movements and buy you time to knock him/her out, or kill the target._

_**Higamigokoro no Jutsu:** Warped Mind Technique._

_You can basically think of this as a very mild version of the Tsukiyome technique Itachi used on Sasuke, Kakashi, and god knows how many others._

_**Hiun Setzuzoku no Jutsu:** Fate Connection Technique._

_Mind control, plain and simple._

_Okay, first of all, sorry it took so long. I've got a ton of reasons, but I know you guys aren't interested in that. So, let's move on, shall we?_

_Now, my absolute adoration and gratitude goes out Thrice Crossed Fool (aka Question Immorality)! Without him, I wouldn't have been able to finish this chapter yet! He added a ton to this chapter and the fight scene couldn't have been what it is without him. Maybe you'll be able to distinguish a bit of his style from mine. If you like what you read in the fight-scene, go to his profile and read his stories, they are awesome!_

_Now about the new techniques, they were gracefully offered by Thrice Crossed Fool, and I tried to translate them into Japanese. And if any of my readers know Japanese, they know that my knowledge of the language can be called… sketchy at best. If one of you does know how to properly name them, please say so in a review or an email. I'd be very grateful for it._

_Now, I've already come a long way with chapter six. Hopefully I'll be able to release it soon. Don't hold me to it though._

_And I'm sorry if this disappoints anyone, but due to my lengthy inability to post a new chapter, I'll hold off on the review response. Please know that I cherish every single review, and I'd like to receive your opinion on this new chapter as well. If you want to discuss anything or just want to let me know something privately, my email is available for you in my profile. You will receive a reply from me as soon as possible. And if you saw an error of any kind in this chapter, please point it out!_

_Now give me reviews, I love them!_

_PS: Sorry again, Konohamaru didn't fit in this chapter, he'll definitely show up in the next one though. And er, dunno if there's still some left, but apparantly some dotdotdot's got replaced with a questionmark this time 'round. Gotta love the quickedit, eh? So if any questionmarks don't make sense, treat em like dotdotdot's.  
_

**Preview for the next chapter:**

Deer. Lots and lots of deer. They were practically _everywhere_. From behind the fence, to the ones that had actually managed to escape and crawl their way in the different nooks and crannies around the Nara's home.

Round and brown eyes blinked at them curiously from all around them. Shikamaru had learned to ignore it. Hinata loved it. And Naruko…

"Stop looking at me, damnit! Ya twisted freaks of nature!"


End file.
